How much was Dianne Feinstein worth when she died?
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has died at age 90, notched plenty of records during her lifetime, becoming the longest-serving woman in the Senate as well as the longest-serving senator from California. She was also one of the richest U.S. lawmakers, with a net worth as high as $69.4 million this year, according to financial disclosure records.
Feinstein's most recent financial disclosure form, filed in May, shows that her wealth included millions held in a blind trust — a standard financial arrangement for members of Congress — U.S. Treasury bills and other low-risk instruments, and money stashed in several large bank accounts. She also owned a condominium in Hawaii worth as much as $5 million, according to the document.
While Feinstein broke ground by joining the Senate in 1992, when there were few women lawmakers in Congress, she more recently came to represent another demographic shift among U.S. political leaders, who have become both older and richer. As recently as 2018, Feinstein ranked as the second-richest senator, following Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, according to OpenSecrets.org.
In 2018, Feinstein's net worth was nearly $88 million, according to OpenSecrets.org, which noted at the time that her most valuable asset was a $37.5 million stake in San Francisco's Carlton Hotel Properties. Her most recent financial disclosure form values the Carlton Hotel stake as worth less than $1,000, due to the sale of the property in 2020.
Her most valuable assets are a qualified blind trust that she created in the early 1990s that is worth as much as $25 million, as well as a First Republic Bank account, which is also valued as much as $25 million.
Where did Feinstein's wealth come from?
Feinstein grew up in the prosperous Presidio Terrace neighborhood of San Francisco, the eldest of three daughters born to Dr. Leon Goldman, a surgeon, and Betty Goldman, according to the Jewish Women's Archive. After graduating from Stanford University, Feinstein became involved in politics and married Jack Berman, a judge, although the marriage ended three years later due to their differing views of women's roles, the archive noted.
Later she married neurosurgeon Bertram Feinstein, with that marriage lasting until her husband's death in 1978.
Meanwhile, Feinstein was pursuing her career in politics and was elected mayor of San Francisco in 1979. Her pension from the city of San Francisco is valued at $500,000 to $1 million, according to her financial disclosure form.
In 1980, Feinstein married Richard C. Blum, a financier who ran Blum Capital Partners and who amassed a fortune that was estimated to exceed $1 billion, according to the New York Times.
Some of the assets listed on Feinstein's disclosure form were jointly owned by herself and Blum, who died in 2022.
How did Feinstein's wealth change over time?
Feinstein's most recent financial disclosure hints at a change in Feinstein's assets compared with the years prior to Blum's death. Based on her 2023 form, Feinstein's net worth could have been as low as $19.4 million based on the low end of the valuation range for her assets.
For instance, her 2020 financial disclosure form includes additional assets held by Blum, such as stock and other investments, as well as the Carlton Hotel Properties, which had a valuation ranging from $25 million to $50 million, that aren't included in her 2023 disclosures.
In her most recent disclosure form, she noted the hotel held by Carlton Hotel Properties was sold in 2020, and the partnership distributed any remaining cash in 2022.
More recently, Feinstein reportedly became embroiled in a financial dispute with Blum's three daughters, according to the New York Times. That centered on disputes over real estate that Feinstein wished to sell but that the daughters wanted to keep, as well as access to life insurance from Blum that Feinstein wanted to access, according to the report.