Martha Frick Symington was incapacitated by a severe stroke in the summer of 1993. She was confined to a wheelchair and unable to walk or speak the last years of her life. Her declining health may have been a factor in the governor's decision to file for bankruptcy. Under bankruptcy rules, any money inherited within six months of a bankruptcy filing becomes part of the bankruptcy estate and can be used to pay creditors. Martha Frick Symington survived for 13 months after the governor's September 1995 bankruptcy filing.
Timing is everything.
Martha Frick Symington's death immediately transfers four additional trust funds to the governor's burgeoning estate, according to documents obtained from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The governor and his three sisters also stand to collect the principal from another trust fund that now will be distributed to Martha Frick Symington's children. Court documents indicate there are millions of dollars in this fund alone. As I understand it, the trust may be springing in the form of cash to the beneficiaries when the mother finally passes away. But there's more.