Rupert Murdoch’s Attempt to Rewrite the Family Trust Failed

In a decision filed on Saturday, a probate commissioner in Nevada ruled against 93-year-old Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change his family’s trust to give his eldest son Lachlan Murdoch more control over the family’s media and business empire.

The decision means that Murdoch’s three other adult children, James, Elisabeth, and Prudence, will have equal voting power with Lachlan over the Murdoch media companies, including Fox News and News Corp, after Murdoch’s death. Murdoch wanted to change the trust to give Lachlan full voting power.

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Commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr. wrote in a 96-page opinion that Murdoch and Lachlan had acted in “bad faith” by trying to change the trust, per the New York Times. He wrote that the attempt was a “carefully crafted charade” to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” inside the family’s companies.

^{Rupert Murdoch, left, and Lachlan Murdoch, right. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

The trust was created in 1999, naming James, Elisabeth, Prudence, and Lachlan as equal beneficiaries. Last year, Murdoch stepped down as chairman of Fox Corp and News Corp and named Lachlan his successor.

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Lachlan shares Murdoch’s conservative views, but his siblings are known to be more left-leaning. James, for example, resigned from the board of News Corp in 2020 over disagreements about editorial content at the company’s news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. He also donated $600,000 to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign that year.

Changing the trust to give Lachlan complete voting power was a step to ensure that Fox News and News Corp maintain their conservative audience after Rupert’s death. It would have ensured that Lachlan isn’t outvoted by his siblings in the future.

Rupert’s lawyers say he plans to appeal the decision. The billionaire was worth $12 billion at the time of writing, per Bloomberg.

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