Helmsley executors to get $900K each

The five executors responsible for handling the complex affairs of the late, notorious real estate baroness Leona Helmsley, will each be handsomely compensated for the task, DNAinfo reported. A Manhattan Surrogate Court judge recently approved payments of $900,000 for the executors, who include two Helmsley grandsons, her brother, her lawyer Sandor Frankel, and her friend John Codey, DNAinfo said.

The judge who signed off on the deal said Helmsley “entrusted her executors with an estate of singular magnitude and extraordinary complexity,” according to DNAinfo. Helmsley’s estate owns part of the Empire State Building, as well as hundreds of other properties, part of the vast empire Helmsley accumulated, all the while becoming a widely hated landlord.

Helmsley’s estate included $12 million for her dog, which DNAinfo said was reduced through the executors’ work. The executors are likely to seek payment for future work on the estate as well, DNAinfo noted; this payment is only for one year’s worth of work, the year right after Helmsley’s death, in 2008. [DNAinfo] — Guelda Voien