So Maybe Brooke Astor’s Son Didn’t Actually Leave Her Destitute

Today’s Times indulges one of our favorite pastimes — counting other people’s money — with a piece detailing the twelve-page audit report of Brooke Astor’s riches. The numbers come from the fortune’s court-appointed guardian, JPMorgan Chase. One unexpected side effect of the list: It makes Brooke Astor’s disgraced son, Anthony D. Marshall, look like a pretty sensible handler of his mother’s money. (Marshall claims to have quadrupled Astor’s liquid assets over the last 25 years.)

How does Mrs. Astor’s $131 million kitty break down?

• $47 million in hedge funds and private-equity investments.
• $41.2 million in real estate: the famed Park Avenue digs and a Briarcliff Manor, well, manor.
• $23.5 million in stocks: a nice-looking blue-chip portfolio that includes Google, anchored by 45,000 shares in Morgan Stanley. Ahh, investing in investment banks; wherefore art thou, Glass-Steagall?
• $10.3 million in personal property (jewelry, furniture, etc.).
• $8 million in government bonds, including in the MTA.
• $1.2 million in cash: some of it, rather conveniently for the guardians, in a Chase account.

Inventory Details Mrs. Astor’s $131 Million Estate [NYT]
The Family Astor [NYM]