FOX Undercover reports details of Ted Kennedy's estate

Sen. Edward Kennedy’s will, filed today in Barnstable Probate Court ( read the will here ), hides the details of his estate behind a wall of secret trusts, but public records obtained by FOX 25’s investigative team shed some light on the family scion’s share of a legendary family’s fortune.

Kennedy revealed in a 2008 financial disclosure report that his publicly traded assets alone are worth between $15 million and $72.6 million, making him one of the wealthiest members of the Senate. Much of that wealth remains in trusts, some of them established by family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy.

His widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, also apparently contributed to the late Senator’s fortunes. His 2008 disclosure indicates that two trusts bearing the Reggie name were worth between $200,001 and $500,015. Those assets include vacant land and a shopping center, both in Louisiana, where Reggie is from.

But by far the most visible asset remains the late senator’s grand Hyannis Port home, the physical and spiritual heart of the Kennedy Compound, which is comprised of several nearby properties. The house, which commands a sweeping view of Nantucket Sound, saw many of the storied Thanksgiving Day touch football games. And it was there that the Kennedy family gathered after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, and where they eulogized John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1999 after his tragic plane crash.

The wall of secrecy surrounding Kennedy’s estate hides who will own the home and how it will be used. Kennedy is survived by his wife and three children, Edward M., Jr., Patrick and Kara Kennedy.

Kennedy reportedly wanted his home to serve the public after his death. Those wishes may be laid out in the details of the Edward M. Kennedy 2006 Trust, of which his friend and now Interim Senator Paul Kirk serves as trustee, said Cape Cod estate attorney Russell Haddleton, who reviewed Kennedy’s will for FOX25.

What is known is that the town of Barnstable this year assessed the value of that home at $9.6 million. The real estate taxes and other local assessments alone for the property totaled $84,520.33, town records show.

Perhaps with an eye toward getting his affairs in order, Kennedy last year passed on ownership of the home to a trust, the trustee of which is Cape Cod land use attorney Michael D. Ford. The address of the trust is listed with the Park Agency, a privately run investment firm that has discretely handled the Kennedy family fortune for decades. Ford did not return a call for comment today.

Almost certainly as part of his estate planning, Kennedy earlier this year subdivided the land into two separate lots. The Barnstable Planning Board approved the request in August. One smaller lot, known as Lot 1, consists mostly of the driveway and a carriage house in the rear of the property. The second, larger lot, known as Lot 2, contains the house, and all the waterfront land.

The Barnstable Zoning Board of Appeals in 2007 issued a similar approval to the home formerly owned by President John F. Kennedy, dividing that 1.39-acre parcel into two separate lots. The ZBA also agreed to let the Kennedy family demolish a smaller, one-floor five-bedroom house on the late JFK’s property and rebuild it into a two-and-a-half-story five-bedroom house with a detached garage. The main dwelling on the property, a nine-bed, 4,810-square-foot house, was to remain untouched.

Sen. Kennedy’s death leaves only one surviving child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, Jean Ann Kennedy. There are numerous grandchildren who presumably would inherit a share of the fortune amassed by Joseph P. Kennedy.