Meet Lynsi Torres.
She’s 30 years old. Thrice married*. A mother of twins. She never graduated college. I don’t think she ever had any business training. She loves drag racing.
And she’s worth over a billion dollars.
Apparently, Lynsi has been recently “outed” as the owner and heir to the In-N-Out burger chain.
Now if you’ve never been to California (or recently Dallas) before, you might not know what that is. Apparently, it’s a very large and privately owned burger chain.
According to Business Week, “when Harry Snyder, who founded In-N-Out with his wife, Esther, in 1948, died in 1976, his son Rich became president, expanding the chain to 93 restaurants from 18. Torres’s father, Harry Guy Snyder, took over following Rich’s 1993 death in a plane crash at age 41. The chain expanded to 140 locations under Guy, who died at age 48 of a prescription-drug overdose. Esther Snyder maintained control of the company until her death in 2006 at age 86, which left Torres the sole family heir.”
I’ve seen stories that she “owns” 50% now and will receive 50% when she turns 35.
As an estate planning attorney I have all sorts of questions. What kind of plan did her grandparents have? How about her father? How did they pay the estate tax without having to sell off parts of the business? Does she own the business outright or in trust? Who is controlling the other 50%? Who are the trustees? Did her family do any lifetime transfers of the assets to her? etc.
Of course, I’ll probably never know the answer to these questions. But if she’s looking for an estate planning attorney. . .or for a fourth husband for that matter, my number is on my website.
*An earlier version of this post said that she was “thrice divorced.” She is still married to her third husband.