Thompson's Sons Sue Stepmother in Estate Case

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The two eldest sons of the late actor and presidential candidate Fred Thompson are suing his wife charging she may have switched beneficiaries on his life insurance policies and retirement plans just before his death.
The claims by Fred D and Daniel L. Thompson were filed in the late senator's estate case in Davidson Probate Court in Nashville, Tenn. Tuesday.
Citing a dispute over a $14,550 legal bill the two are demanding that Jeri Thompson turn over her husband's estate planning documents so they can determine whether last minute changes were made.
The legal bill from a prominent Nashville law firm, Waller Lansden, shows that there was a last minute attempt to draw up a new will in the days before Thompson's death, but that effort was ultimately unsuccessful.
Instead the will filed in the estate is over a decade old and omits the two children born after Thompson's marriage to Jeri, who is the executor of the estate. She issued a statement denying the charges.
The dispute over the legal bills, first reported in this blog, was put on hold over a month ago by agreement of both parties.
The two eldest sons, who are included in the official will, however are charging that changes may have been made in the beneficiaries of life insurance policies and retirement plans even in property holdings.
They charge that Jeri Thompson has refused to provide them with copies of the estate planning documents.
The motion asks the court to declare any such changes invalid, contending that Jeri Thompson may have exerted undue influence over her husband and that the late senator was not competent to authorize any such changes.
Thompson died in November of last year. The one time presidential candidate and Law and Order prosecutor was once estimated to be worth $8 million.