Reclusive Heiress Huguette Clark Does Have Will, Lawyer Says

(Sept. 2) -- Huguette Clark, the reclusive heiress to a fortune estimated at $500 million, does have a will after all, a spokesman for her attorney says.

Whether she had a will and who will inherit her staggering wealth have been major questions in the saga of the 104-year-old woman who hasn't been seen in public for more than 50 years.

In this Aug. 11, 1930 file photo, Huguette Clark Gower, daughter of the late copper magnate and Senator, William A. Clark of Montana, stands against a wall in Reno, Nevada after being granted a divorce.

Huguette Clark, shown here in 1930, hasn't been seen in public for over half a century.

The document "has been in existence for some time," said Michael McKeon, spokesman for Wallace "Wally" Bock, Clark's attorney for more than a decade, the "Today" show reported this morning.

But McKeon would not say who is in line to receive her copper mine wealth, citing his client's intense desire for privacy. She has no heirs.

"Over the years," McKeon said, "Ms. Clark has made all of her own decisions -- including insisting on her privacy. In short, she has lived her life the way she has wanted to."

The Manhattan district attorney's Elder Abuse Unit is investigating Bock and certified public accountant Irving Kamsler over their management of Clark's money. Cynthia Garcia, a former paralegal for Bock, said the lawyer has repeatedly tried to get the heiress to sign codicils naming Bock and Kamsler as beneficiaries, the New York Post reported.

Garcia said Clark was so generous to Bock that her gifts, including a $10,000 dollhouse to his granddaughter, became a joke at his law firm, according to the Post.

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McKeon slammed the former employee. "Both her credibility and her motivation are suspect," he told the "Today" show.

Clark has lived at Beth Israel Medical Center for 20 years. She has not been seen in her 42-room Manhattan apartment -- the largest co-op in New York City -- or her estates in California and Connecticut for decades.

Prosecutors began investigating whether the lonely inheritor of her father's copper fortune was a victim of elder abuse after MSNBC.com reported last month that friends and household staff hadn't seen her in years.