Miami Beach's newest socialite, Conchita, lives in an $8.3 million Sunset Island mansion, owns a Cartier diamond necklace and has a $3 million trust fund to support a lifestyle of designer duds, massages and pedicures, reports The Miami Herald.
What makes Conchita different from other Miami Beach socialites: She's a Chihuahua. Conchita came into her wealth upon the March death of her owner, socialite Gail Posner, who died of cancer at the age of 67. Gail Posner was the daughter of late corporate raider Victor Posner, who amassed a fortune by plundering companies and ultimately got himself in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Whether Conchita keeps her millions will be decided in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, where Gail Posner's only living child, son Bret Carr, launched a legal battle this month over his mother's estate. Carr claims his mother was manipulated into changing her will in 2008, leaving millions to her dogs and hired help.
Gail Posner's will and trust gives her three dogs — Conchita, April Maria and Lucia — the right to live in the two-story Sunset Island mansion until they die.
She also left $27 million to her maids, bodyguards and personal trainer, plus the right for some of them to live rent-free in the seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion in exchange for taking care of the dogs.
Bret Posner got only $1 million. The remainder of the estate goes to charities.
Posner in 2007 had hired a publicist for Conchita, who she billed as the world's most spoiled dog. Gail Posner told The Miami Herald in 2007 about Conchita's $12,000 summer wardrobe and a $15,000 Cartier necklace that the Chihuahua refused to wear after choking on it.
"Conchita is the only girl I know who doesn't consider diamonds her best friend,'' Posner told The Miami Herald.
It will be up to the courts to decide if Gail Posner knew what she was doing when she signed that will and no one who stood to gain from the will exerted "undue influence'' on her, said Carl Westman, a trusts and estate planning attorney with GrayRobinson in Naples.
After Victor Posner's death, Gail started to show signs of overcoming the addiction and mental problems that had plagued her her entire life. During that time she grew closer to Carr. But the diagnosis of breast cancer in 2005 sent her into a tailspin, Carr said. Things only got worse as the cancer spread to her brain.
The suit charges that her employees took advantage of her condition.
Victor Posner set up irrevocable trusts in 1965 for Gail and her twin brother Steven, which would generate income for them during their entire lives.
But the trust was closed in 2008 with any remaining money given to Gail Posner and placed in a newly created trust. Carr's suit accuses BNY, the personal representative of Gail's estate, of breaching its "fiduciary duties.''
"We believe we acted appropriately as trustee in relation to the 1965 trust,'' said Susan Rivers, a spokeswoman for BNY Mellon Wealth Management.
His daughter was only allowed to touch the principal in her $100 million trust account for emergencies or if she needed money to "maintain her in the station of life she was accustomed.'' The principal was supposed to remain in the trust for her children.
Now, Carr is suing BNY Mellon and related firm Mellon Private Trust. He wants to know what happened to the $100 million he claims was in his mother's trust after Victor Posner's death.
Meanwhile, Conchita the dog lives the life of a Miami Beach fat cat.
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