Epstein’s deathbed will: Who stood to inherit multimillion-dollar fortune, and what about the victims?

Two days before he died in a New York jail cell in August 2019, Jeffrey Epstein signed a detailed legal document setting out how his vast fortune should be distributed. Newly released records from the United States Department of Justice, published at the end of January as part of the latest tranche of Epstein files, have now made that document public for the first time, offering the clearest picture yet of who stood to benefit from his estate, and how much was ultimately left after years of legal claims and restitution.

The 1953 Trust and the intended beneficiaries

The document, a 32-page instrument known as the 1953 Trust, named for the year Epstein was born, was signed just two days before his death. According to the trust, Epstein intended to give the bulk of his estate, valued at around $100 million at the time the trust was drafted, to his then-girlfriend Karyna Shuliak. The trust states that Epstein had contemplated marrying Shuliak and specified that she should receive his 33-carat diamond ring.

It also provided that she would receive a total of $100 million, including a $50 million annuity to be established for her benefit. While the trust entitled her to much of Epstein’s property, large portions of his real-estate portfolio, which included multiple luxury residences, have since been sold by the estate.

Shuliak, a Belarusian national who appears frequently by name in the Justice Department files, is shown in the documents to have known Epstein since at least 2012.

Records indicate that Epstein helped pay for her to attend dental school. She is believed to be living in New York City. The files also show that Shuliak was the last person Epstein called from jail on the night before authorities said he took his own life. Beyond Shuliak, the trust listed more than 40 potential beneficiaries. The two largest allocations after Shuliak were to Epstein’s longtime personal lawyer Darren Indyke, who was to receive $50 million, and his in-house accountant Richard Kahn, who was to receive $25 million.

Both men were also named as co-executors of Epstein’s estate.

Other unredacted names in the trust include Epstein’s brother Mark Epstein, a New York-based property developer, and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse teenage girls and is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence. The trust specified that each of them should receive $10 million. Epstein also intended to leave $5 million to Martin Nowak, a Harvard University mathematics professor with whom he had a long-standing relationship; Nowak’s name appears misspelt in the document.

Several of the 40 names listed in the trust remain redacted in the Justice Department release. Mark Epstein has previously said he was unaware that he had been named as a beneficiary.

What beneficiaries will actually receive, and the victims’ compensation

While the trust lays out Epstein’s intentions, it does not determine what any beneficiary will ultimately receive. The value of the estate has fallen sharply since his death, eroded by taxes, prolonged legal disputes and payments to victims. At the time of Epstein’s death, his estate was valued at roughly $600 million. However, According to a NYT report, More recent court filings have placed its value at closer to $120 million, although the final figure could rise because some venture-capital investments remain valued at their 2019 levels. Daniel Weiner, a lawyer for the estate, has said that neither Indyke nor Kahn, nor any other beneficiary, “will receive any money from that estate unless and until all creditors and claims on the estate have first been satisfied in full, including claims for compensation made by women who suffered abuse at Mr. Epstein’s hands.” Notably, the 1953 Trust itself made no provision for the more than 200 teenage girls and young women whom Epstein is believed to have abused.

After his death, however, Indyke and Kahn established a restitution fund that paid out $121 million to victims. Separately, the estate has paid $49 million in settlements related to abuse claims.

How Epstein built, and sheltered, his wealth

The origins of Epstein’s fortune have long been opaque. A 2025 review of court filings and financial records by Forbes shed new light on how he accumulated it. The analysis concluded that Epstein relied heavily on two ultra-wealthy clients, Les Wexner, the former head of Victoria’s Secret, and private equity investor, Leon Black, who together accounted for up to 75 per cent of his fee income between 1999 and 2018.

During that period, Epstein collected at least $490 million in fees, in addition to investment gains. Expert reports filed in 2022 showed that his only revenue-generating entities were based in the US Virgin Islands. Epstein became a resident there in 1996, benefiting from generous tax breaks that allowed him to accumulate much of his wealth nearly tax-free. In 1998, he spent almost $8 million to purchase Little Saint James, later infamous as “Epstein’s Island”. By the time of his death in 2019, Epstein controlled a sprawling portfolio of assets: luxury homes in New York, Florida and New Mexico, two private Caribbean islands, and nearly $380 million in cash and investments. According to his estate, that totalled roughly $578 million, a fortune he attempted to lock into place just days before his death, through a trust that continues to shape the legal and moral reckoning over what he left behind.