Ex-GE Boss Has Nearly $500 Million

(AP) - BRIDGEPORT, Conn. Newly released financial statements in Jack Welch's divorce case showed that the former General Electric Co. chairman has nearly a half billion dollars in assets and a monthly income of $1.4 million.

Financial statements were released Wednesday by Welch and his estranged wife.

Welch's affidavit said he has a total monthly income of $1,414,528 and expenses of $366,114. Welch lists assets of $456 million and liabilities of $16.7 million.

Welch spends $51,531 a month to maintain two Fairfield homes valued at more than $16 million, one in Nantucket valued at $10 million, a $3.5 million home in Lost Tree, Fla., a Palm Beach, Fla., home listed at just $300,000, and a home in Lenox, Mass., valued at $100,000.

He spends an average of $8,982 a month on food and drink and $1,903 on clothes, according to the eight-page document. He also spends over $52,000 a month on gifts.

Jane Welch, who has a home in Florence, Italy, lists monthly income of $11,360 and assets of $8.3 million.

"I would just like to get on with my life in a happy way," Welch said after a Superior Court hearing Wednesday. "We are not talking life or death here."

The Welches were due back in court Monday for a hearing on Jane Welch's request for temporary alimony.

Welch lawyer Samuel V. Schoonmaker III said Welch's legal team was trying hard to settle the case. Asked if Welch had offered his wife $15 million to end their marriage, Schoonmaker replied, "he has offered many multiples of that."

Jane Welch has argued that the $35,000 a month she has been receiving now does not allow her to live in the style to which she was accustomed.

She filed papers last month to increase the support. In those documents, she estimated that during their 13-year marriage the couple's expenses ran more than $2.5 million annually. Under state law, she can claim up to 50 percent of the equity the couple accrued.

Messages seeking comment were left Thursday with Jane Welch's attorney, William Zabel.

The Welches disclosed their plans to divorce in March, shortly after then-editor of the Harvard Business Review Suzy Wetlaufer revealed she had become romantically involved with Welch while working on a story about him.