- Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy signed their wills in June 2005
- Hackman’s children are not named in the document
- Uncertainty around fate of $80 million fortune
Oscar winning actor Gene Hackman, who died at 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, who died at 65, named each other as the personal representatives of each others’ estates. The couple, who were both found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, last month, signed their wills in 2005.
Read more: Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa’s cause of deaths revealed
There is now uncertainty around the fate of Gene’s $80 million fortune, given that Betsy, whom he named successor trustee of the Gene Hackman Living Trust, died days before him. It is therefore impossible to know who is named in Gene’s trust as the information was not made public.
Read more: Who was Gene Hackman’s wife Betsy Arakawa?
Hackman’s children not named
Hackman also appointed the remainder of a separate trust that dates back to September 1994, called the GeBe Revocable Trust, in Arakawa’s favor. His three children, son Christopher and daughters Leslie and Elizabeth, are not named in that document. This would mean they miss out on any inheritance.
However, without trust documents, it still remains unclear who the actual beneficiary of Hackman’s assets is and how they will be divided.
San Diego estate attorney and certified public accountant Michael P. McCarthy, who is not affiliated with the case, explained via USA Today that “Whomever acts as trustee will be bound by the actual terms of the decedents’ trust documents and shouldn’t be able to influence the distribution of assets….Normally this is done privately and without formal court supervision.”
As reported by TMZ, Hackman’s son Christopher has already hired Andrew M. Katzenstein, a prominent California trust and estate attorney, which could indicate he plans to challenge his father’s will.
Trust and family law attorney David A. Esquibias, who is also not affiliated with the matter, told People the fact that Gene and Betsy signed their wills 20 years ago could make a contest to the will more unlikely.
“In this situation, Gene Hackman and his wife did not sign their will and trust in 2025 or 2024,” he says. “But, had that been the case, I think there was more likelihood that there’s gonna be a contest. But if you look at the dates of the will, they’re 2005.” Just one year after Hackman made his final movie Welcome to Mooseport, the actor “was younger and more virile” and “presumably had his faculties,” he adds.
He explained that “Contesting a 20-year-old document is exponentially harder than contesting a deathbed-signed document.”
Who is in charge of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa’s estate now?
Julia Peters, who works for a Santa Fe-based trust company, has been appointed the personal representative of both Hackman’s and Arakawa’s estates. She took over the duties as Arakawa and the first successor, attorney Michael G. Sutin, are both deceased.
Arakawa’s will left most of her assets to Hackman. However, it reportedly contained a clause stating that if the couple passed away within 90 days of each other all her assets would go to charity.
In a petition to court on 13 March, Peters wrote, “there are trust assets to be administered in both the GeBe Revocable Trust and the Gene Hackman Living Trust”.
Peters has also filed paperwork asking the court to grant a preliminary injunction preventing authorities from releasing any photo or video of evidence of the death scene, on privacy grounds.
