enator Joseph I. Lieberman, the Democratic nominee, is a man of quite modest means by the standards of the US Senate. Nonetheless, thanks to a rich uncle, Lieberman finds himself in a peculiar situation for someone who would be vice president - making decisions on an estate worth $76 million.
Other than a $25,000 bequest and modest fees as coexecutor and cotrustee, Lieberman is not a beneficiary of the estate of Bernard Manger, who died in 1995. But fairly or not, the family responsibility he undertook has some potential to cause him political discomfiture.
Yesterday, for example, the Republican National Committee sought to use the estate issue against Lieberman, resuscitating 1997 news articles about the estate's decision to evict a tenant for nonpayment of rent from an apartment building it owned. The tenant, who remains in the building, subsequently filed suit, claiming she had been injured because of poor maintenance.
The estate's 1996 assets were $48.2 million, according to records filed that year in state Probate Court in Stamford, Conn. At the time, they included stock holdings in the Hollywood entertainment industry, which Lieberman has criticized for the violent content it produces; major pharmaceutical firms, which Lieberman and Vice President Al Gore have made a target of their campaign; and energy and tobacco firms, to which the Democrats have said that Governor George W. Bush of Texas and his running mate, Dick Cheney, are too closely aligned.
Lieberman did not make those investments. But his role in overseeing the estate raises novel questions for a prospective vice president: Since Manger's heirs - relatives of Lieberman - stand to benefit from the estate trustees' decisions, should Lieberman step aside, even though federal ethics laws would not require him to do so even if he was a beneficiary?
Jodi Sakol, the communications director for Lieberman's campaign, said last night that Lieberman has not yet decided whether to relinquish his role overseeing the estate, but that the senator is consulting advisers on the issue.
Other campaign aides, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified, said they do not know what the current assets of the estate are, since Lieberman and his cotrustee, Harold F. Bernstein, have long since hired professional financial managers who are empowered to decide which assets to sell or buy.
One of the campaign advisers said Manger's estate paid approximately $15 million in federal estate taxes. Despite that major tax bite, Sakol said the estate is now valued at about $76 million.
Personal finances have been much more of a headache for Cheney. He has had a rough initiation to national politics - substantial public focus on the $20 million or so he has been paid as head of a Texas-based oil services conglomerate, a controversy that ebbed only when he agreed to forgo $3.8 million in future stock options if he is elected.
Lieberman, in contrast, is a relative pauper in the Senate, where most members have assets worth millions. From Lieberman's Senate financial disclosure statement, it appears that he and his wife, Hadassah, have a net worth of less than $2 million. Unlike many of his colleagues, Lieberman has not made his tax returns public, but aides said his campaign is preparing to release his returns from the last 10 years.
His uncle, Manger, was the owner of a Connecticut electrical wiring company. But when he died in 1995, his relatives discovered that his wealth was far greater than they imagined. Lieberman, who was named executor of the estate and a trustee, filed documents showing that Manger's assets included real estate valued at $3.8 million; stocks and stock funds worth about $15.5 million; and tax-free bonds worth about $26 million.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal, in an article about Lieberman's role in overseeing the estate, reported that Manger disinherited two of his four children because they married non-Jews, even though the spouses converted to Judaism. Later, a less harshly worded draft of Manger's will surfaced, Lieberman brokered a solution that treated the children equally.
Though Manger's will stipulated that Lieberman be paid $50,000 a year as cotrustee, he has accepted just $20,000 annually. Hadassah Lieberman, separately named as a trustee of a trust established for Manger's widow, is paid $40,000 annually.
In 1997, the Hartford Courant reported that Manger's estate, which owned several rental properties, won a court order evicting a tenant, Monica E. Beach, for nonpayment of $10,000 in rent. Beach, in turn, sued the estate, claiming she lost her job due to an injury she suffered when she fell on an apartment staircase that had gone unrepaired.
At the time, Lieberman said he had been unaware of the estate's effort to evict Beach. Under a compromise worked out at the time, Beach was allowed to remain in the unit rent-free until her lawsuit is resolved. It is slated to go to trial next year.
Globe correspondent Lisa Prevost assisted in the preparation of this report.
