{"id":40147,"date":"2023-11-01T19:07:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T19:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/investing\/hedge-fund-billionaire-john-overdecks-estranged-wife-sues-over-movement-of-trust-assets-to-wyoming-before-her-divorce-filing\/"},"modified":"2023-11-01T19:07:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T19:07:22","slug":"hedge-fund-billionaire-john-overdecks-estranged-wife-sues-over-movement-of-trust-assets-to-wyoming-before-her-divorce-filing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147","title":{"rendered":"Hedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Laura Overdeck, the wife of billionaire hedge fund manager John Overdeck, alleged in a lawsuit filed last week against the law firm of Seward & Kissel and one of its partners that they committed malpractice and fraud by not informing her that documents which moved marital assets to Wyoming trusts also ended her claim on those assets if either filed for divorce.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

Laura filed for divorce from John in March 2022, 20 years after the couple\u2019s marriage and 21 years after John cofounded $60 billion quant hedge fund Two Sigma in 2001 with David Siegel. The couple did not have a prenuptial agreement, and John Overdeck amassed the bulk of his estimated $7.3 billion fortune since they married, presumably setting Laura up for a hefty payout. But her lawsuit claims she found out soon thereafter that documents she signed in 2018 permitting transfers \u201cexceeding several billion dollars\u201d from trusts set up in New Jersey to new trusts housed in tax-friendly Wyoming came with unexpected consequences. The original New Jersey trusts had been set up to reduce federal estate and gift taxes and to benefit their three shared children and both partners. Legal news service Law360 first reported on the lawsuit last Friday.<\/p>\n

The complaint filed in New Jersey Superior Court claims that Seward\u2019s attorneys included provisions in the Wyoming trusts, without informing her, that would remove her as a beneficiary \u201cupon either spouse commencing a legal proceeding seeking a divorce.\u201d Instead, she claims all she was told was that \u201cthe trusts were being moved to Wyoming to shield them from certain taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, she alleges that the Wyoming trust instruments give her husband \u201csole control\u201d of determining how much their three children will inherit and leave the door open for him to distribute money earned during their marriage to children he may have separately in the future. The law firm Seward & Kissel and a spokesperson for John Overdeck at Two Sigma did not respond to requests for comment. The partner named in the suit is Hume R. Steyer, identified on Seward & Kissel website as co-head of its Private Clients\/Trust and Estates Group.<\/p>\n

“Laura Overdeck believed she was represented by Seward & Kissel,\u201d Kevin Kilcullen, one of her attorneys, tells Forbes<\/em>. \u201cShe now understands they acted directly against the interests of her and the children.”<\/p>\n

This practice known as \u201ctrust decanting\u201d has become a popular tactic used by the wealthy to shield assets from Uncle Sam, ex-spouses, other family members and creditors. It involves removing assets from a supposedly irrevocable trust and pouring them into a new trust with new or revised terms, usually in states with friendly tax laws and lax regulations around notifying beneficiaries. (Decanting is governed by state law and the modifications typically shouldn\u2019t change the grantor’s original intent.)<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

\u201cWyoming, South Dakota and Delaware are the nation\u2019s legal sewers,\u201d says Jay Adkisson, an asset protection attorney who is not involved in the Overdeck case. \u201cPeople go there when they\u2019re trying to cheat somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Las Vegas-based estate planning attorney Steve Oshins, also unaffiliated with the Overdecks\u2019 dispute, says taking trusts to jurisdictions like Wyoming for state income tax avoidance reasons is common and cautions that he can\u2019t jump to conclusions based on allegations that could be misleading or merely a negotiating tactic. But he adds that if Overdeck did expand the trusts\u2019 purview to include his possible future children, it could create a legal issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s true, then that part of the decanting or the entire decanting could be voided by a court because when you decant, you can\u2019t add additional beneficiaries,\u201d says Oshins.<\/p>\n

The stakes of the divorce negotiations are heightened by the fact that John Overdeck\u2019s most important professional relationship is also on thin ice. The hedge fund\u2019s annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal, noted that its management committee, which includes only the two founders, has been \u201cunable to reach agreement on a number of topics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overdeck is a math genius who oversees the construction of Two Sigma\u2019s research models, while Siegel is a computer science whiz supervising its back-end engineering. A 2015 Forbes story compared Overdeck to a chef, \u201capproving the recipes and preparing the meals,\u201d and Siegel to the restaurant manager ensuring that the ingredients and appliances are in place and functioning well. The Journal\u2019s report on their feud this June said following that story, Overdeck brought a chef\u2019s hat into a meeting with Siegel, angering his cofounder for days.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the tension became public, according to another Wall Street Journal report, Siegel and Overdeck partially reassured investors in a letter, writing, \u201cWhile we disagree about certain important topics, we also agree on many of the things that are most critical to our organization.\u201d Still, any part of Overdeck\u2019s ownership stake he would cede in a divorce settlement would appear to give Siegel an upper hand. His divorce lawyer Jonathan W. Wolfe told the Journal that he \u201chas no intention of entering into any divorce settlement that would affect the firm\u2019s business or his ownership.\u201d Wolfe didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment for this story.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

While Two Sigma was growing into a hedge fund giant, the Overdecks retained Seward & Kissel in 2007 to begin their estate planning, drafting wills and creating trusts for their children. Laura Overdeck\u2019s complaint says the law firm helped them set up a joint family office and their Overdeck Family Foundation, which has given more than $300 million primarily to advance education causes since it was founded in 2011. It adds that Seward helped her create her own nonprofit called Bedtime Math, which sells children\u2019s books and offers programs aiming to make math fun for kids.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges that in 2013, when the couple discussed creating a postnuptial agreement (determining the distribution of assets should the marriage end), Seward partner Steyer wrote them an email explaining that he wouldn\u2019t be able to represent either of them in that matter. Laura Overdeck assumed that was due to a conflict of interest, but the firm didn\u2019t notify her of any such conflict when it presented her the trust documents to sign in 2018, which she now contends benefitted her husband to her detriment.<\/p>\n

In addition to charging fraud and malpractice, Laura Overdeck alleges that Seward breached its fiduciary duty to her as a legal client by not notifying her of the drawbacks of the new trusts. But the complaint notes that the law firm claims it wasn\u2019t representing her at all. When she discovered that she could be removed from the trusts after filing for divorce, the firm wrote her a letter in May 2022 saying that it hadn\u2019t provided any legal services to her personally since 2010. This was news to her. Her complaint notes that she and John were paying the firm from joint bank accounts from 2015 through 2022, despite Seward\u2019s assertion that it was only representing him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laura Overdeck, the wife of billionaire hedge fund manager John Overdeck, alleged in a lawsuit filed last week against the law firm of Seward & Kissel and one of its partners that they committed malpractice and fraud by not informing her that documents which moved marital assets to Wyoming trusts also ended her claim on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-investing"},"yoast_head":"\nHedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing | Prosfunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Laura Overdeck, the wife of billionaire hedge fund manager John Overdeck, alleged in a lawsuit filed last week against the law firm of Seward & Kissel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing | Prosfunds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Laura Overdeck, the wife of billionaire hedge fund manager John Overdeck, alleged in a lawsuit filed last week against the law firm of Seward & Kissel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prosfunds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-01T19:07:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-01T19:07:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1698865640_0x0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6\"},\"headline\":\"Hedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-01T19:07:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-01T19:07:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147\"},\"wordCount\":1192,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Investing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147\",\"name\":\"Hedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing | Prosfunds\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-01T19:07:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-01T19:07:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"Laura Overdeck, the wife of billionaire hedge fund manager John Overdeck, alleged in a lawsuit filed last week against the law firm of Seward & Kissel\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"description\":\"Latest Finance News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"width\":780,\"height\":140,\"caption\":\"Funding Factories\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing | Prosfunds","description":"Laura Overdeck, the wife of billionaire hedge fund manager John Overdeck, alleged in a lawsuit filed last week against the law firm of Seward & Kissel","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing | Prosfunds","og_description":"Laura Overdeck, the wife of billionaire hedge fund manager John Overdeck, alleged in a lawsuit filed last week against the law firm of Seward & Kissel","og_url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147","og_site_name":"Prosfunds","article_published_time":"2023-11-01T19:07:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-01T19:07:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1360,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1698865640_0x0.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6"},"headline":"Hedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing","datePublished":"2023-11-01T19:07:20+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-01T19:07:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147"},"wordCount":1192,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Investing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147","name":"Hedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing | Prosfunds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-11-01T19:07:20+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-01T19:07:22+00:00","description":"Laura Overdeck, the wife of billionaire hedge fund manager John Overdeck, alleged in a lawsuit filed last week against the law firm of Seward & Kissel","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=40147#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hedge Fund Billionaire John Overdeck\u2019s Estranged Wife Sues Over Movement Of Trust Assets To Wyoming Before Her Divorce Filing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/","name":"Funding Factories","description":"Latest Finance News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization","name":"Funding Factories","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","width":780,"height":140,"caption":"Funding Factories"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40149,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40147\/revisions\/40149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}