ASTOR MILLIONS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17451, 11 May 1922, Page 2

ASTOR MILLIONS.

£22,000,000 IN U.S. The referee appointed to determine the value, for the purposes of inheritance tax, of tlie personal property in New York City set aside by the late Visoount Aetor in trust for the benefit of his children and certain of his grandchildren, recently filed a report appraising it at £5,497,000. This amount, added to the estimated vffhie of the remainder of his property in the United States, brings the amount of Jids American estate to the estimated total of £22,000,(XX). . The property referred to _ m the referee-'s repoi"t is contained in three trusts, the first of which was executed in May, Wlti, and the others m August, iyi9. On the day of the wedding of Lord Astor's younger son, Captay.i John . Jacob Astor, which took place in 1918, Lord Astor executed a marriage settlement providing that Captain Astor should receive approximately •£?o0,000 m-ore than his elder brother Waldorf, now Lord Astor, the husband of Lady Astor. M.P. The trustees nave paid over £200,000, and the payment of the balanoe is now recommended, Lord Astor being directed to deposit it at Lloyd's Bank. The referee incidentally reveals that hte wa<s instructed to determine the amounts which the trustees should pay to the infant children of the late peer's sons, Waldorf Astor and Jdhn Jacob Astor, and his daughter, Pauline Spender-Clay, for their maintenance and education, and that he has fixed the amount at £5500 a year. The total income of the funds sinoe their creation, states the referee, is more than £1,250,000, out of which payments have been made, among others, as follows: £330,000 to Captain Astor; £22,000 to his wife, Lady Violet Astor; £l4-1,000 eadh to the three elder sons of the present.peer; and £25,000 to John Jacob Astor, junior, as fourth son.

About £300,000 has also been set aside for "income tax reserve" for the benefit of Captain Astor, and £48,000 in the same' manner for each of the three sons of tho present Lord Astor. Tho trustee, adds the referee, _ has also received £148,000 for division among the latteir's sons except Joh-.i Jacob Astor, junior, of which Ulio greater part has not yet been distributed. John Jacob Astor, junior, is credited with a further £2G,OCO, of which £20,000 remains,in the. hands of trustees.

The first Lord Astor's English estate was valued at £421,963. i