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Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden plans to intervene as trustees of the $4.6 billion trust that funds the Nemours Foundation and A.I. du Pont Hospital for Children petitions to reorganize.
The Alfred I. du Pont Testamentary Trust, which was developed in accordance with the former DuPont vice president’s last will and testament, shells out millions of dollars each year for the care of children and the elderly in Delaware.
The trustees filed a motion with a Florida court in December, asking to spit the trust into two entities in order to gain significant tax benefits and to make administration more convenient, court papers said.
The proceedings will be held in the Duval County Circuit Court in Florida, where the Nemours Foundation and the trust is based and where du Pont was living at the time of his death in 1935.
Aside from the Alfred I. du Pont Children's Hospital in Wilmington, the Nemours Foundation also allots funds for the Nemours Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., the Nemours Children’s Clinics in Delaware, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Biden said his office is getting involved in order to ensure Delawareans’ interests are protected and that the majority of the funds from the trust continue to support Delaware’s children and older adults.
“My job as attorney general is to be an advocate for the public interest of Delaware,” he said. “Alfred I. du Pont made it clear that Delawareans should be the primary beneficiary of his trust, and we will ensure that his vision continues to be carried out.”
Trustees are asking the court to allow them to split the trust, thus creating two separate funds to be called the Alfred I. du Pont Annuitants’ Trust and the Alfred I. du Pont Charitable Trust. The charitable fund would contain more than 99 percent of the existing structure, according to a statement by the trust’s Board of Trustees.
Biden said the terms of the trust have been hashed out and battled over in courts for decades. In 1980, the trustees reached an agreement with Florida, Delaware and the Nemours Foundation that Nemours would get the net income of the Trust or 3 percent of the trust’s net market value and that at least 51 percent of the funds be spent in Delaware.
Biden said he wants to make sure that agreement still stands and does not change when the trust is modified.
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden plans to intervene as trustees of the $4.6 billion trust that funds the Nemours Foundation and A.I. du Pont Hospital for Children petitions to reorganize.
The Alfred I. du Pont Testamentary Trust, which was developed in accordance with the former DuPont vice president’s last will and testament, shells out millions of dollars each year for the care of children and the elderly in Delaware.
The trustees filed a motion with a Florida court in December, asking to spit the trust into two entities in order to gain significant tax benefits and to make administration more convenient, court papers said.
The proceedings will be held in the Duval County Circuit Court in Florida, where the Nemours Foundation and the trust is based and where du Pont was living at the time of his death in 1935.
Aside from the Alfred I. du Pont Children's Hospital in Wilmington, the Nemours Foundation also allots funds for the Nemours Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., the Nemours Children’s Clinics in Delaware, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Biden said his office is getting involved in order to ensure Delawareans’ interests are protected and that the majority of the funds from the trust continue to support Delaware’s children and older adults.
“My job as attorney general is to be an advocate for the public interest of Delaware,” he said. “Alfred I. du Pont made it clear that Delawareans should be the primary beneficiary of his trust, and we will ensure that his vision continues to be carried out.”
Trustees are asking the court to allow them to split the trust, thus creating two separate funds to be called the Alfred I. du Pont Annuitants’ Trust and the Alfred I. du Pont Charitable Trust. The charitable fund would contain more than 99 percent of the existing structure, according to a statement by the trust’s Board of Trustees.
Biden said the terms of the trust have been hashed out and battled over in courts for decades. In 1980, the trustees reached an agreement with Florida, Delaware and the Nemours Foundation that Nemours would get the net income of the Trust or 3 percent of the trust’s net market value and that at least 51 percent of the funds be spent in Delaware.
Biden said he wants to make sure that agreement still stands and does not change when the trust is modified.
“I don’t have any evidence to believe they aren’t living up to it, but we’re going to continue to review it and make sure they are living by the terms of the trust,” he said.
Board of Trustees Chairman Hugh Durden said in a statement that trustees are not requesting anything that would change the purposes of the trust or adversely impact the interests of the citizens of Delaware.
“The trust has distributed more than $2.2 billion to the Nemours Foundation, and we look forward to continuing our mission to fund important care for the children and elderly of Delaware and elsewhere.”
