BRIEF: Settlement ends fight over estate of Erie’s Hirt [Erie Times-News, Pa.]

Apr. 5--The two heirs of an Erie-based fortune of have settled their legal dispute, allowing millions of dollars in their mother's estate to be distributed to beneficiaries including 40 charities, most of them in Erie County.

Sisters Laurel A. Hirt and Elizabeth A. Vorsheck reached the deal to end the fighting over the $60 million estate and trust of their mother, Audrey Hirt, who died at age 81 in March 2009.

The agreement, filed today in Erie County Orphans' Court, details a plan by which the trust will get the liquid assets to make the distributions.

Audrey Hirt, 81, was the daughter-in-law of H.O. Hirt, who cofounded Erie Insurance Group in 1925, and the wife of the late F.W. Hirt, an Erie Insurance chief executive and board chairman.

The $60 million trust's main asset is stock in Erie Indemnity Co., the management arm of Erie Insurance. The sale of that stock was a main point of contention in the dispute.

Go to Tuesday's Erie Times-News and GoErie.com for more coverage.

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