Strom Thurmond’s estate is valued at $1.48 million, according to a final accounting filed late Monday in Aiken.

Thurmond’s widow, Nancy Moore Thurmond, is the largest beneficiary, receiving more than $400,000 in cash from her late husband’s insurance and savings.

But Nancy Thurmond plans to use nearly a third of that to honor the many small cash grants Thurmond made in his will.

Thurmond’s estate contains $27,430 in cash. In his will, filed in October, Thurmond made cash bequests of $91,500, more than three times the amount actually available.

There also are outstanding debts against the estate, including money owed to Edgefield Hospital, where Thurmond lived until his death, plus the costs of his funeral. Those debts total nearly $70,000.

Nancy Thurmond will use money from the senator’s government savings plan to pay the estate’s debts and to honor the commitments Thurmond made in his will, said Mark Taylor of West Columbia, attorney for the estate and the Thurmond family.

“She intends to honor the senator’s express wishes that this account be used to cover any shortfall between the net estate assets and debts and the senator’s testamentary requests,” Taylor said. “It’s purely a gift.”

In his will, Thurmond made cash gifts of between $250 and $50,000. For example, Emmett and Anne Richardson, children of Thurmond’s longtime personal secretary, who died last year, are each to receive $2,000.

Efforts to reach Nancy Thurmond, who was separated from Thurmond, were unsuccessful Tuesday. Calls to Thurmond’s three children in South Carolina were referred to Taylor.

Not mentioned as a beneficiary of the estate is Essie Mae Washington-Williams, Thurmond’s mixed-race daughter who made her father known in December.

For tax purposes, Thurmond’s entire estate is valued at $1.48 million. Federal law says estates worth less than $1.5 million are not subject to taxes.

Included in the $1.48 million is the $27,430 in cash, in a Bank of America checking account. The estate also includes miscellaneous personal property and four cemetery lots in Aiken, worth $9,974.

Those are the only assets that could be turned into cash to honor the gifts Thurmond made in his will.

Also included in the $1.48 million is a one-fourth share in 2,840 acres of land in Aiken County. That share is valued at $426,000.

Before his death, Thurmond gave his children ownership of the property, but he retained the right to use the land. Therefore, it had to be listed as part of his estate, even though he did not control the property when he died.

‘THE PRUDENCE OF ESTATE PLANNING’

Nancy Thurmond is the sole beneficiary of a $40,000 individual retirement account the senator held and of $187,000 in his government thrift savings plan, which is similar to a 401(k) offered by private-sector companies.

That money is separate from the government pensions the senator also earned, which Nancy Thurmond will continue to collect. It was estimated she could receive more than $75,000 a year for life from his state and federal pensions.

Thurmond’s widow and their three surviving children — Strom Jr., Julie and Paul — each will receive a one-fourth share of Thurmond’s $787,000 life insurance policy, or nearly $200,000 each.

Washington-Williams is not acknowledged in Thurmond’s will.

Thurmond, who died in June at age 100, never publicly acknowledged Washington-Williams as his daughter. Washington-Williams, who lives in California, kept their secret while her father was alive.

Her attorney, Frank Wheaton of Los Angeles, said he was not surprised Washington-Williams was not a beneficiary of the insurance policy.

“Not at all, based on the manner in which we believe the estate was dispersed in the first instance,” Wheaton said.

More than a decade before he died, Thurmond and his wife established a trust for their children. It included real estate holdings, certificates of deposit, money market funds, checking accounts, stocks and bonds worth more than $2 million.

Under state law, a surviving child is only entitled to a share of a parent’s estate if he or she is specifically mentioned in the will.

Thurmond was in his 60s before he and Nancy Thurmond had children. Thurmond planned well for them, Taylor said.

“As a lawyer, as a judge, he certainly understood the prudence of estate planning and the irresponsibility had he not done so,” Taylor said. “Strom Thurmond was many things to many people. Irresponsible was not one of those things.

“This is a very ordinary estate involving an extraordinary man who carried one of the most famous names of the 20th century.”

$200,000 WAS ‘JUST AN ESTIMATE’

When the will originally was filed in October, Thurmond’s estate was estimated to be worth $200,000. That was a preliminary estimate and nothing more, Taylor said. It is common for the original estimate to change significantly as the estate is completed, he said.

When an estate is first opened, a form asks for the amount of personal property and real estate, “and that’s just an estimate,” said Catherine Kennedy, an attorney with Nelson Mullins in Columbia. “It’s quite frequent that you just put on there an amount to let the court know.”

Thurmond spent 48 years in the U.S. Senate, was governor of South Carolina, served in the General Assembly, as a judge and as a school superintendent. Nearly his entire adult life, including his Army service, was spent on one government payroll or another.

In 1990, The State reported that Thurmond’s family assets were estimated to be more than $2 million. That report was based on Thurmond’s annual statement of his net worth filed with the secretary of the U.S. Senate.

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com.