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Steve Jobs' wife to manage $4.6 billion trust of Disney shares

Laurene Powell, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, will manage a $4.6 billion trust containing the 138 million shares of the Walt Disney Co. that Jobs acquired when he sold Pixar in 2006.

In the wake of Jobs' death last month, speculation arose on what would be done with his estate, estimated to be worth $7 billion. Securities filings on Wednesday revealed that his Disney shares, which represented the majority of his wealth, have been placed in a trust.

The trust is Disney's largest shareholder with a 7.7 percent stake in the media conglomerate. Jobs originally acquired the shares in 2006 when he sold Pixar to the company for $7.4 billion. At the time, Jobs owned more than half of Pixar's stock.

Tax experts recently suggested that Jobs' family should sell off all of his Apple and Disney stock in order to avoid higher taxes later on and diversify the investment portfolio. According to a recent report from Bloomberg, the family could have saved $867 million in capital gains taxes.

"I can't see any reason not to sell all of it," Kacy Gott, chief planning officer at the wealth-management firm Aspiriant, told the publication. "They should have been looking to diversify years ago."

However, placing the shares into a trust is method for mitigating tax exposure on gains made from the shares, though it's not immediately clear what type of trust was set up in this case. According to Bloomberg, earlier proxy statements did show that Jobs was moving his assets into trusts toward the end of his life.

Some have speculated that Powell will use a portion of the trust's funds for philanthropic work. She has been an active participant in the non-profit sector and currently sits on the board of the Teach for America program.

50 Comments

splash-reverse 15 Years · 648 comments

Ah, the rich people. Always looking more ways to save money rather than paying taxes that could built schools etc. but then this is America, most of it (tax money) will go to their cronies at the congress and a large portion to pay for unwarranted wars.

dualie 17 Years · 334 comments

I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that she didn't take the advice of "tax experts" or Bloomberg.

chris_ca 19 Years · 2540 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider

"I can't see any reason not to sell all of it," Kacy Gott, chief planning officer at the wealth-management firm Aspiriant, told the publication.

How about she wanted to be the largest shareholder of Disney (or any of a few dozen other reasons)?

soundvision 14 Years · 174 comments

She has a BA in Economics and her MBA from Stanford.

From her Wiki:

" Before business school, Jobs worked for Merrill Lynch Asset Management and spent three years at Goldman Sachs as a fixed-income trading strategist."

I'll she'll be managing that money just fine.

tbell 18 Years · 3145 comments

How about the millions in dividends it pays her every year? Jobs made close to 300 million in dividends from the Disney stock since he sold Pixar.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris_CA

How about she wanted to be the largest shareholder of Disney (or any of a few dozen other reasons)?