Forrest Lee Preston was born in 1933 in Massachusetts, USA to a Seventh-day Adventist pastor father, Benjamin, and his wife Ethel. Forrest is best known as an American businessman. He holds one of the most successful medical care companies in the US.
So just how rich is Forrest Preston as of late 2017? Authoritative sources report that Preston’s net worth is as high as $1.35 billion, accumulated from his over six decades-long career in the previously mentioned field. His assets include a house worth $145 million located in Cleveland.
Forrest Preston Net Worth $1.35 billion
Preston attended Walla Walla College and Oregon State University. Prior to his career in health care, he worked selling vacuum cleaners and as an X-ray technician. Forrest went on to establish Hospital Publications, a company dedicated to creating public relations materials for hospitals and brochures designed for patients, working alongside his brother Winton Russell Preston, the founder of Preston Printing. The company was active until 1972. In 1970, Forrest started Life Care Centers of America, the largest privately held elderly care chain of hospitals in the US, which includes nursing homes and assisted living facilities as well. Life Care Centers now has 28 hospitals over the country, and is the third largest company of that kind, with headquarters located in Cleveland, Tennessee, offering their services in cases of Alzheimer’s and dementia among other diseases and complications.
In addition to his career in health care, Forrest is an investor in Luken Communications, a privately-held American broadcasting company which owns approximately 80 television channels. It faced financial struggles, but eventually succeeded to getting out of bankruptcy in 2014, and as of 2015, Life Care Centers of America had over 42,000 employees; in the same year, Preston took 327th place on the Forbes’ list.
In October 2016 of the same year, Preston agreed to pay the amount of $145 million in order to settle a government lawsuit -. Forrest and the company itself were under an investigation after two facility workers from Tennessee and Florida accused the company for fraud. Preston still works as of today, and isn’t planning on retiring anytime soon. He is the #1,468 on Forbes’ list of billionaires worldwide and #463 in the US. Forrest stated that his future plans for the company include improvement of their facilities and post-acute care. In July 2017, Preston’s facilities were named the Best Nursing Home, for the 12th year in a row. When it comes to the succession of the company, Preston’s plan is held a secret, although none of his children are interested in continuing his work. To this day, he remains the only owner of Life Care Centers of America.
In his personal life, Forrest was married to Kathleen Preston; the couple had three sons and a daughter, however, after Kathleen suffered a stroke a few years ago, Forrest took a break from his job in order to take care of her. She passed away in January 2017, at the age of 80. As of today, he is a widow, and currently resides in Cleveland, Tennessee. After his father died, he decided to provide a Benjamin M. Preston scholarship at Atlantic Union College, where his father studied.
The article has a few errors. LCCA has over 200 Skilled Nursing Facilities in 28 states, not 28 hospitals. Also, Forrest’s personal life included a divorce from his previous wife, and per the divorce records, he committed several counts of adultery (“A plethora of concubines”). Thus the reasons for his ex-wife’s multi-million dollar award.
One of the often over-looked and under-reported reasons for his rise in wealth was due to an almost 10 year fraud scheme that gleaned BILLIONS of dollars, which the article does make a passing mention. Then there are those heavy “monthly management fees” the company drains from all its facilities’ operations.
C’mon, no honest and religious man is going to become a BILLIONAIRE by striping LTC facilities and the US Taxpayer of billions. Pull your head out of your dark areas!