A recent probate filing in New York surrogate court shows that the Vanderbilts’ sons will inherit most of their mother’s money. Charles Vanderbilt will receive the money that will pay for his Manhattan co-op filled with antiques, and Cooper will get “everything else,” including $1.5 million. This may not mean much to the Coopers, who have been estranged from their mother since they were children.
There are many theories on the inheritance of the Vanderbilt fortune. Some claim that Gloria’s third son, Stan, inherited the fortune. This is not a surprising fact given that he famously walked out of his mother’s will decades ago and never came back. Alternatively, Gloria could have written him back into her will, but she was not in the best of health when she wrote it, and she may not have known much about his life.
While she lived nearly a century, her money was not distributed as it was due to the nature of her philanthropic pursuits. Instead, distributions came to fill in the gaps. The money, however, may have been left behind. Despite the lack of a will, speculation has also surrounded the money. Whether it’s secretly inherited by Anderson Stokowski, or it is inherited by the children of Vanderbilt’s estranged husband, is unclear.
It is believed that her net worth was overestimated prior to her death, but the book by her son Anderson Cooper, a television personality, found that most of Gloria’s money had been spent or lost during her lifetime. In addition to her own mismanagement of her finances, Gloria Vanderbilt’s estate was overestimated – at least in part because of her bad business deals. While her sons inherited most of her fortune, Christopher Vanderbilt received nothing.