Patrick Kennedy inherits dad's millions

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy will retire from Congress a much wealthier man after receiving a multimillion-dollar inheritance from his father, the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died a year ago Wednesday.

Much about the Kennedy family’s fortune remains a mystery, but Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., provided a glimpse of his own wealth in his latest financial disclosure, which was filed in May but has not been reported.

It shows Kennedy’s net worth rose last year to more than $6 million, and likely much more than that, according to an analysis by Eyewitness News. His annual income from dividends and other sources was more than $205,006, on top of his congressional salary of $174,000.

Members of Congress are not required to provide precise dollar figures in their disclosure forms. Instead, they give the value of their assets and incomes in broad ranges, such as “$1 to $200” or “$100,001 to $1 million.”

Kennedy’s spokesman, Derek Pearce, declined to answer additional questions about the disclosure form. “Congressman Kennedy has fully complied with the financial disclosure requirements and will not be commenting further than the information contained in those documents,” Pearce said in an e-mail.

Kennedy announced earlier this year that he would not run for re-election in November. He has represented Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District since 1995. He won the seat after serving six years in the R.I. House of Representatives, having been first elected as a 21-year-old Providence College student.

Trusts' holdings unknown

Edward Kennedy died on Aug. 25, 2009, at the Kennedy compound in Barnstable, Mass., after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. His survivors include his second wife, Vicki, and his three children, Edward Jr., Kara and Patrick.

Patrick Kennedy inherited three trust funds from his late father, according to the disclosure. Those are in addition to a fourth trust his father had already granted him a number of years ago.

Kennedy has never disclosed the value of that trust, but his disclosure form shows it generates annual income of more than $100,000. Like other members of his family, Kennedy said he has no knowledge of the assets held by the various trusts.

Passed down by patriarch

Two of the trust funds Kennedy inherited after his father died were established in 1926 and 1936 by his grandfather, family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy, whose children included Edward Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy.

Patrick Kennedy’s share of those two trusts was worth between $6 million and $30 million combined, and he received more than $105,000 in income from them last year, the form said.

Patrick Kennedy also inherited a fourth trust, which his father created in 2006. That trust included the assets of two other blind trusts Edward Kennedy had established in 1978 and 1987, according to his will. As of May, the executors of Sen. Kennedy’s estate had not determined the value of Patrick Kennedy’s share of the 2006 trust.

In addition to the four trust funds, Kennedy, who is not married, said he has accounts with Citizens Bank and Citibank that had more than $65,000 in them at the end of last year. He also closed a money market account during the year.

Members of Congress are not required to report the value of their personal residences on their financial disclosures. Kennedy owns a home in Portsmouth that has an assessed value of $1.6 million, according to the town assessor’s office.

Managed in New York

Joseph Kennedy established at least four trusts for his children during his lifetime so he could preserve and pass on to his heirs the fortune he'd amassed in real estate, finance, liquor and other industries during the first half of the 20th century, according to his biographers.

“It was always Joe Kennedy’s emphatic wish that money never be discussed, at the family dinner table or in public,” Time magazine wrote after his death in 1969. “ ‘It's just not an important enough matter to talk over,’ he said.” His wife Rose and other members of the family have established additional trusts over the years.

The Kennedys have not been on Forbes’ list of the nation’s 400 richest families since 1994. The magazine estimated the family’s combined fortune peaked at $850 million in 1990, which would be roughly $1.4 billion in today’s dollars.

The Kennedys’ financial affairs are managed by the staff of its private holding company in New York City, the Park Agency, which Joseph Kennedy established in the 1940s. Its office is currently located on Madison Avenue.

Patrick Kennedy sold his stake in one of the family’s investment partnerships, Park Holdings Group LLC, which held oil and gas assets, for between $100,000 and $250,000 in November 2008, according to his disclosure form last year.

Compound's future unclear

Prior to his death, Edward Kennedy subdivided into two parcels the property that includes his beloved seaside home on Cape Cod. It is one of three houses in Barnstable’s Hyannis Port