Not bad for a couple of “dead broke” people.
Penny-pinching probable presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her former leader-of-the-free-world husband, Bill Clinton, have apparently grown quite attached to their money.
Despite being self-described paupers on their way out of the White House, the Clintons managed to sock away so much that they now want to shield their wealth from the dreaded estate tax they enthusiastically supported before striking it rich.
“The estate tax has been historically part of our very fundamental belief that we should have a meritocracy,” Hillary Clinton said at a December 2007 appearance with billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
But according to Bloomberg News, the Clintons have employed a variety of financial strategies designed to help shield multimillionaires from the estate tax, a levy paid by a person who inherits money or property.
The tax can top out at 40 percent of assets.
Bill and Hillary Clinton have long supported an estate tax to prevent the US from being dominated by inherited wealth.
As long as the tax is for other people, it appears.
According to federal financial disclosures and local property records, the Clintons created residence trusts in 2010 and shifted ownership of their Westchester house into them in 2011, a strategy popular among the nation’s 1 percent.
The move could save the Clintons hundreds of thousands of dollars in estate taxes, financial experts say.
News of the money move comes as Hillary Clinton promotes her new book, “Hard Choices.”
Last week, in an interview with ABC, she told anchor Diane Sawyer that she and Bill were “dead broke” and in debt when they left the White House after 2000.
She backtracked a day later on “Good Morning America,” saying she understood the struggles of Americans.
At the end of 2012, the Clintons were worth from $5.2 million to $25.5 million, according to financial disclosures that Hillary Clinton filed in 2013 as she was leaving her position as secretary of state.