When Buffett died at 76 on September 1, 2023, he was remembered as the embodiment of the chill life who parlayed his easygoing hits into an array of restaurants, tequila, apparel, casinos, cruises and island-themed retirement communities.
As part of his estate plan, Jimmy had directed assets worth an estimated $275 million into a marital trust after his death, naming Jane as the sole beneficiary, while their three children were named remainder beneficiaries after Jane’s death.
The conflict includes accusations from both sides about mismanaging trust funds and assets. Jane Buffett and Mozenter are each seeking to remove each other as co-trustees in the trust, which includes a stake in the Margaritaville business empire. Meanwhile, executives, longtime family assistants and Jimmy’s family members have been pulled into the litigation. The messy affair is headed for a January trial.
In 1997, Jimmy co-founded the Margaritaville business with John Cohlan, who became a close friend, and still runs the company as CEO. It was built off of the Margaritaville brand’s humble beginning in 1985 as a souvenir store in Key West. The business launched into restaurants and licensing consumer products ranging from beer and tequila to blenders, furniture and clothing.
As many wealthy people do, Jimmy decided that a marital trust would be established to benefit Jane after his death, adding his business manager, Mozenter, as co-trustee along with her. The assets in the trust, according to the court filings, included an estimated $35 million in real estate, $85 million for its 20% stake in the Margaritaville business, $15 million of interest in airplanes, $2 million in music equipment and $5 million in vehicles.
In April 2024, at a tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl, Jane’s friend and adviser, former Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, along with her personal attorney, approached Mozenter to try to broker an accord. Jane argued that the accountant was keeping things from her. Bewkes urged him to share financial information about the trust. Mozenter told him that Jane didn’t have a reason to worry, because the trust had enough assets to cover her lifestyle, according to Jane’s filings.
Mozenter’s filings offer a different account of the conversation that night, saying Bewkes called Jane “delusional” and that he agreed Jane wasn’t being rational. Bewkes said that representation of their conversation is false.
Jane claimed that Mozenter had essentially gone rogue, pushing her out and hiding information that she has a right to have as co-trustee and sole beneficiary who was a part of building her husband’s empire, all while billing the trust for millions of dollars in fees that she likened to a “personal piggy bank.” Mozenter has resisted that narrative, depicting Jane as a hostile wild card.
In August, a Florida appellate court upheld an earlier ruling that Mozenter can bill the trust for reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.
In Mozenter’s view, Jane has interfered in caretaking of the assets. He has claimed that she tried to call off a documentary about Jimmy being produced by his friend Frank Marshall, known as a producer of blockbusters like Back to the Future and Jurassic Park and documentaries, according to Mozenter’s filings. When Jimmy’s longtime boat captain was let go in 2024, Mozenter handled the termination as co-trustee. But, he claims, Jane harassed the boat captain (she called him a “criminal cry baby” to Mozenter) to the point that the trust was forced to pay a larger financial settlement. Jane has denied both claims in court filings.
In February 2025, according to Jane, Mozenter shared some news that alarmed her: He estimated the marital trust would generate less than $2 million in net income yearly, not enough for her to live according to the lifestyle to which she’d become accustomed.
But that estimate didn’t include any income from the Margaritaville business, she said. Mozenter said Margaritaville didn’t make projections about future cash distributions to shareholders.
Mozenter said in court filings that the implication of trust mismanagement is wrong, that most of the assets were tied up in real estate that didn’t produce rent by choice or in non-dividend-producing stock. He said much of Jimmy’s income came from touring and merchandise sales that largely ended with his death. He said that if she needed more, she would have to take from a retirement account or sell off real estate to produce more income, or cut her expenses.
In late spring 2025, the fight came to a head. Jane sent a letter asking Mozenter to step down, warning she would file a lawsuit to have him removed. Mozenter, in response, filed a lawsuit in Palm Beach County, Florida, claiming it was Jane who had to go. Jane filed a counterclaim seeking his removal.
As the court fight dragged on, Mozenter sent a notice to Jane that he was seeking to make a major change that would push her out of power. He was moving the assets into a new trust, a process known as decanting, which Mozenter said was allowed under state law.
In the new arrangement, Mozenter wants Jimmy’s sister, Lucy Buffett, to be a “consenter,” which would give her power to veto any decisions Jane made about inheritances for her children.
Jane, who would be removed as co-trustee but remain the beneficiary under the new trust, told the court it was an “unconscionable power grab.”
For more information see “Lost in Margaritaville: The Messy Drama Over Jimmy Buffett’s $275 Million Trust” The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2026.