Executors of Billionaire's Estate Want $6K Per Hour

How much should you get paid for handling the estate of a dead billionaire? Apparently $100 million—or more than $6,400 per hour—If that estate belongs to Leona Helmsley, the Wall Street Journal reports. “By any definition, this hourly rate is exorbitant, unreasonable, and improper,” states a filing from the New York Attorney General's Office. The executors of Helmsley's will—two grandchildren, a lawyer, and a business advisor—defended their request for the "astronomical" fee stating they "faced enormous risks" while increasing the estate's value. Helmsley—a famous New York City property owner who KCCI points out was known as the "Queen of Mean"—was worth $4.78 billion when she died in 2007, the Journal reports.

Helmsley left most of her wealth to charity, the Journal reports. And the Attorney General's Office has the power to make sure charities aren't getting fleeced by "excessive and unreasonable expenses," such as the fees being demanded by her estate's executors. The state is hoping to cut the requested fee by up to 90%. This isn't the first controversy surrounding Helmsley's estate. Her will left $12 million to her dog—more than two of her grandchildren got. And two other grandchildren who were left out of her will entirely are challenging it. While Helmsley's executors fight for $100 million, Iowa announced this week that $6.3 million from her estate will be going to pay for automated chest compression systems to give cardiac arrest victims around the state a better shot at survival, according to KCCI. (More New York stories.)