Skip to content

Alleged Promises by Mogul to Care for Child of Mistress at Center of Estate Dispute

MP900403058He allegedly said that she’d get a ‘big surprise’ in his will. If that surprise was that he’d leave her out of the will entirely, that’s what she got. However, the secret family is pushing back against John R. Jakobson’s estate.

The executor of John R. Jakobson’s estate is relying on the “dead man’s” statute, a law that prohibits a witness who has an interest in a case from testifying about communications with the deceased person. The executor, the son of millionaire John R. Jakobson, doesn’t want Marie Squerciati, the daughter of his father’s former mistress, talking.

Wealth Advisor’s recent article, “Wall Street mogul John R. Jakobson promised mistress that their love child Marina Squerciati would get a ‘big surprise’ in his will–then left Chicago PD star Nothing,” reports that documents filed with the Manhattan Surrogate Court state vague terms the man who died aged 86 in April 2017—and who reportedly had many affairs—allegedly used when stating plans for his will.

'I’m a gentleman and you may read into that only good,” the senior Jakobson purportedly told his mistress in 1981 about their alleged daughter, now 37, who went on to star as Officer Kim Burgess on Chicago PD.

The mogul's widow, Joan Jakobson, said she didn’t know about Mariana, who kept her family life a secret, until she found out she was left out of the will. Jakobson's three living children from his marriages were included in the will. However, the family of the man, who at 25 became one of the youngest people to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1955, has refused to acknowledge her as one of his children.

Marina is the allegedly product of his affair with her mother Marie Squerciati, who was a television writer in the 1970s and 80s and reporter for the Village Voice, as well as The New York Times. The affair was said to have lasted for a year and led to Marina's birth in 1981. For her whole life, Marina kept her father's identity a secret, as he allegedly paid her mother $1,200 a month for more than 20 years. That monthly check was used for Marina's nanny and for her apartment in New York City. Jakobson also reportedly paid for Marina's schooling including the $175,000 tuition for Dalton School, then $131,000 for her education at Northwestern University, where she graduated from in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in theater.

Even though Jakobson made oral promises that he'd provide a “substantial” trust for Marina in his will, it looks like he didn’t. When Marina got engaged, her mother allegedly asked Jakobson for a gift to which he allegedly reaffirmed that she “would receive money under his will.”

In her court filings, Marina contends that the price of her silence was “extraordinary” and that she missed out on the opportunity to build a relationship with her alleged father and was denied “any relationship whatsoever with her half-siblings.”

The Squerciatis contacted his estate last fall to ask if Marina was named a beneficiary, according to court papers.

The Jakobson’s attorneys say that Marina’s claims are not founded in any facts, and that even if she could prove that he was her father, she had had more than enough time during her life to have had him put his intentions in writing.

The Jakobson’s attorneys offered Marina a $50,000 settlement, but that was clearly not enough.

Reference: Wealth Advisor (October 14, 2019) “Wall Street mogul John R. Jakobson promised mistress that their love child Marina Squerciati would get a "big surprise" in his will–then left Chicago PD star Nothing”