6. Brooke Astor
Value of estate: $198 million
Contested: Executor
Feuding parties: Son and grandson
That Lean And Hungry Look
Brooke Astor, a wealthy New York City socialite who died in 2007 at the age of 105, named her only son, Anthony D. Marshall, as the executor of her estate. In 2006, Marshall was accused by his son Philip of defrauding Astor in the late stages of her life and stealing millions of dollars from her. Anthony was subsequently found guilty of a number of fraud and conspiracy charges, as well as first degree grand larceny, and was sentenced to prison in 2009. It took two and a half years of negotiating after the criminal verdict was handed down for the parties to reach the global settlement in 2012.
5. J. Howard Marshall II
Worth: $1.6 billion ($300 million
contested)