A Knox County judge has rebuffed a request to keep Linda Bean’s will out of the public eye.
In the decision, Probate Judge Carol Emery said that if Bean wanted to keep her will and other estate records from remaining public documents, she could have addressed that in her estate planning, according to the Courier Gazette.
Portland-based law firm Verrill Dana LLP has filed the request on behalf of the estate’s representative, Veronika Carlson, president of Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine. The Gazette reported that Bean’s will, dated Aug. 21, 2022, was expected to be filed in probate court after a judge ruled on the request.
No reason was given for the request.
Ahead of that ruling, Register of Probate Elaine Hallett told the Gazette that she’s never seen a will sealed in her 45 years working in the Knox County office.
Bean died March 23 at age 82. She founded the companies Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine and Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster, among other business ventures on the state’s midcoast. She was the granddaughter of L.L. Bean founder Leon Leonwood Bean.
Beyond business, Bean supported several philanthropic organizations and even made bids for political office, unsuccessfully vying for the Republican nomination for the 1st Congressional District in 1988 and then losing a general election bid for that same seat in 1992.