This Tennessee nursing home billionaire and his multibillion dollar business could be in jeopardy due to the actions of his much younger wife, per new legal filings.
By Jemima McEvoy
The son of a 91-year-old nursing home magnate is charging in new legal filings that his father has been robbed of “tens of millions” in assets and is suffering “abuse” at the hands of his wife. According to the claims, the future of his father’s $3 billion (revenue) nursing home chain, the country’s largest private chain of elderly care facilities, is also in jeopardy.
Aubrey Preston, 65, whose father Forrest Preston founded Life Care Centers of America in 1970, filed a 28-page complaint against Preston’s wife and her siblings on Oct. 29 in Bradley County, Tennessee, accusing them of violating the state’s Adult Protection Act by “civilly aiding and abetting one another to misappropriate Forrest’s assets.” In a connected petition, Aubrey asked the court to make him his father’s conservator, putting him in charge of his father’s finances. Forrest Preston is worth some $1.4 billion, according to ’ estimates.
The younger Preston alleges that his father, who is still CEO and owner of Clevand, Tennessee-based Life Care Centers, is suffering from dementia and “other cognitive deficits that make him unable to manage his own resources, carry out the activities of daily living, or protect himself from neglect, hazardous or abusive situations without assistance from others.”
Specifically, Aubrey alleges that his father is suffering “abuse” and “financial exploitation” at the hands of his wife of six years, Kim Phuong Nguyen Preston, who is 36 years his junior. In the claims, the younger Preston also expresses concern that his father plans to hand ownership of his company, along with the CEO title, to Kim, whom he argues has “no experience in the field.” According to its website, Life Care Centers currently operates or manages over 200 nursing, rehabilitation, Alzheimer’s and senior living campuses in 27 U.S. states.
“In his prime, Forrest dominated Life Care and its affiliates, and he successfully managed his responsibilities to tens of thousands of patients and employees for decades. But his disabilities have opened the door for Kim and her family to dangerously disrupt operations and drain cash and assets,” Aubrey alleges in the petition.
Reached by phone on Tuesday afternoon, Forrest Preston told that he does not want to respond publicly to allegations made in the filing. “This is the beginning. What you have is the beginning,” said the billionaire.
“It’s the case of having a son who got what he wanted to get and he started to use it,” Forrest said, talking while in a car with another passenger. It was difficult at times to follow what he was saying. “He’s said different things that I can’t share with you,” he continued, at one point comparing the legal battle to a “backyard basketball game.” He added: “There’s some things he needs to understand but that’s OK.”
Meanwhile Aubrey filed a second emergency petition, also on Tuesday, asking the court to make a faster decision amid fears that Forrest and his wife may be trying to flee the country. According to the emergency petition, Kim asked a Life Care employee to help renew Forrest’s passport the day after Aubrey filed the initial Oct. 29 conservatorship claim. The new petition also included sworn affidavits from Life Care President Todd Fletcher and CFO Steve Ziegler about Forrest’s inability to lead the business.
“Forrest’s extended absences have occurred even when pivotal action items were required of him, including Forrest failing to execute loan documents until the last few days or even the last day… and most recently failing to provide personal financial statements to lenders by the deadline as required by loan agreements,” said Ziegler in his affidavit.
Becoming his father’s conservator on an 60-day emergency basis would give Aubrey – in consultation with Fletcher and Ziegler – the power to make key decisions and sign legal documents relating to Life Care, according to the terms laid out in the legal document. If the conservatorship extended beyond the emergency period, Aubrey has requested to take over his father’s ownership of the company, as well as decisions over estate planning, his father’s health (including his treatment and hospitalization), and even over whether to pursue a divorce or annulment against Kim.
A hearing has been set for Nov. 12 at which the court will decide whether to make Aubrey his father’s conservator temporarily for 60 days while it determines whether the move is necessary in the long-term.
“I think the petition speaks for itself,” Gary Patrick, a lawyer representing Aubrey, told . He said his client’s goal is to “protect Mr. Preston, who we firmly believe is incompetent, and protect Life Care.”
Kim did not respond to attempts by to contact her personally and through her attorney, Alan Cates. Her family members, who are also named in the lawsuit, could also not be reached for comment by either. None of them have filed a response in court yet.
The Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, became one of the early epicenters of COVID-19 in Washington State.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
According to the legal filing, Forrest married Kim, his former paid caretaker, in 2018, a year and a half after the death of his wife, Kathleen Preston. Aubrey alleges the elder Preston was “dependent on opioids and Valium” at the time of the marriage to Kim, which is described as a “secretive out-of-state elopement” where no members of Forrest’s family were present or even notified.
Kim and her siblings have also “unlawfully” taken over $15 million in property and cash from Forrest, argues Aubrey, citing two homes his billionaire father transferred to Kim, which she later passed onto her siblings, and a $5.1 million home purchased in Kim’s name in Greensboro, Georgia in October 2023. Aubrey also claims that his father may have financed at least two other homes for Kim’s family – one transferred to her son in October 2020, another to her sister in March 2021.
“Up to Forrest’s purported June 2018 marriage to Kim, Aubrey and Forrest enjoyed a close father-son relationship, including routine visits, overnight stays and regular telephone calls, and Aubrey served as a key business advisor and personal confidante to Forrest,” alleges the petition. “After their purported marriage, Kim no longer allowed family to visit Forrest at his home.” Patrick, Aubrey’s lawyer, said it’s been between six months and a year since Aubrey last saw his father.
The petition also alleges that Kim and her family have gone so far as to chain shut the gate of their home. At one family gathering, the legal filing alleges, Kim sported a loaded Glock 9mm tucked in her waistband, which she said she would use “to protect herself and Forrest.” According to his son, Forrest previously “opposed” firearms and would not allow them in his home.
Aubrey worked for Life Care until the early ‘90s but has no role at the company today, according to his attorney. The younger Preston does own “other assisted and nursing home facilities” that aren’t affiliated with Life Care, says Patrick. He is the founder and chairman of the Leiper’s Fork Foundation, a private Franklin, Tennessee-based charitable foundation with $1.2 million in assets. In addition to Aubrey, Forrest has three other biological children: Kathryn Gooch, Farrell Preston and Bryan Preston. Gooch declined to comment on the petition when reached by phone by . Bryan, who also appears to run his own chain of senior living facilities, and Farrell did not respond to requests for comment.
The complaint also accuses Kim of a “broader scheme” to target Forrest’s most valuable asset: Life Care Centers. The legal filing alleges that the chain has struggled since the Covid-19 pandemic, when it became a deadly hotspot for the virus. Forced to sell off or shutter facilities to generate cash, the business still needs $100 million worth of facility improvements, maintenance and equipment replacement, according to the petition.
Aubrey alleges that his elderly father is no longer capable of running the business, and that he is showing up at its offices “erratically” and taking “weeks” to respond to key business decisions. Kim too has been showing up at headquarters and at Life Care board meetings, even though she is not on the board, alleges Aubrey.
“While Life Care’s very existence hung in the balance, Forrest told Aubrey that he intended to appoint Kim as Life Care’s CEO because he believed she had ‘earned the position,’” the billionaire’s son writes in the petition. He alleges that an unnamed lender to Life Care–with which it has over $300 million in outstanding loans–has said it will not provide any more financing until a succession plan is nailed down.
Dara Carroll, Life Care Centers of America’s director of public relations, confirmed that Forrest is still the company’s chief executive and shared the following statement from Todd Fletcher, Life Care’s president: “Regardless of any legal proceedings, Life Care’s leadership and associates both in Cleveland and around the country remain committed to fulfilling their mission of providing excellent care to the residents in the communities they serve.” Life Care said it does not have any further comment at this time.
Meanwhile, Forrest Preston’s lawyer, Bill Horton, called Preston “an icon in the care of the elderly industry with an important legacy” and said the company was financially sound with good management in place: “This is a private family matter that all concerned will work out.”