It is believed that either Benjamin Franklin or Mark Twain said “Nothing is certain except for death and taxes.”
Not having appropriate estate planning documents to address both of these certainties is a mistake. The fact is that we don’t know when we’re going to die. Nor do we know when we might become incapacitated due to an accident or sudden illness.
If you die unexpectedly and your estate planning documents are out-of-date, confusing, or nonexistent, settling your estate is likely to be much more complicated and expensive.
For instance, you might have heard that actress Anne Heche, who died this past summer in a car accident at age 53, did not have a will. Anne had a 20-year-old son, Homer Laffoon, with her ex-husband Coley Laffoon, and a 13-year-old son, Atlas Tupper, with ex-boyfriend James Tupper.
Homer promptly filed a petition asking to be named the administrator of his mother’s estate, but Atlas’s father asked the court to appoint him instead.
James is relying in part on an email he says Anne sent him and her entertainment-law attorney in 2011, with the subject line “Will,” stating that her assets should go to him (James) to raise both of her sons on her behalf. According to James, Anne wanted each son to receive his share of her estate at age 25.
Homer opposes James’ petition, and it is likely that a significant portion of Heche’s estate, estimated to be worth about $400,000, will be depleted in dealing with the probate.
You may also have heard that Larry King left a brief handwritten will when he died last year. He and his wife were separated and in the process of obtaining a divorce.
The handwritten will was apparently intended to revoke his will from 2015, disinheriting his wife Shawn and dividing his estate among his five children.
Unfortunately, while the will was signed by Larry and two witnesses, it is riddled with spelling and punctuation errors and says only:
This is my Last Will & Testament.
It should replace all previous writings
In the event of my death, any day after the above date I want 100% of my funds to be divided equally among my children Andy, Chaia, Lary Jr Chance & Cannon
When the will was offered for probate, Larry Jr. filed papers with the court arguing that he should be appointed special administrator of the estate. Shawn, however, claimed that she should manage the probate, since Larry’s 2015 will appointed her executor.
Shawn also argued that Larry lacked the capacity to execute the will because he had recently suffered a stroke and was possibly under the influence of medication. In addition, she claimed that the will may have been the result of undue influence and that it violated the marital agreements between the two of them.
If Larry had worked with an experienced attorney, the lawyer would have advised him about the rights Shawn would have pursuant the marital agreements and taken steps to ensure that there was adequate evidence of his mental capacity, given his age and health problems.
An attorney would also have been able to word the document in such a way as to avoid confusion over what Larry intended. When he wrote “funds,” did he mean all of his assets? Who did he want to serve as executor? What did he want to happen to the shares of the children who predeceased him (as, sadly, two of his children did after he wrote this document)?
While there is some expense associated with hiring an attorney, the costs saved by writing your own will are almost always more than cancelled out by the added expenses involved in the resulting probate. With a properly drafted will, Larry’s family probably would have avoided this expensive and stressful litigation over Larry’s estate.
Plus, those with a relatively high net worth can easily save more in taxes by following their attorneys’ advice than it costs to have the attorney create the estate plan.
Anne Heche and Larry King’s stories are two of many examples of celebrities not taking the time to work with an attorney to prepare an appropriate estate plan.
For example, when singer/songwriter Aretha Franklin died in 2018, her family thought she had died without a will, but nearly a year later, three different handwritten documents were found in her home that discussed her estate plan, leaving no clear-cut answer as to whether which (if any) of the documents is a valid will.
If that isn’t bad enough, in March 2021, a draft of a will from 2018 was found in the office of a lawyer who had been working with Franklin on her estate plan and one of her heirs asked the court to recognize this will and the accompanying notes as her official will.
Author/filmmaker Michael Crichton died during his wife’s pregnancy, and he hadn’t updated his will to provide for the unborn baby. His daughter from a previous marriage fought the petition to designate the baby an heir. The court decided in the baby’s favor, but again, not having up-to-date estate planning documents resulted in expensive litigation and delayed distribution of the estate.
Further, if you die without appropriate estate planning documents, your property may be distributed in accordance with state law rather than your wishes. For instance, when singer/songwriter Prince died without a will in 2016, the court found that his estate should be distributed to his sister and five half-siblings, although he wasn’t on the best of terms with all of his siblings.
By planning now, you can ensure that your assets go to those you want to have them. In fact, by creating a distribution plan, you can give some things to people while you’re still alive and able to see them enjoy those benefits, while arranging to have the remainder of your estate transferred on your death.
You can also identify the people you’d like to handle your estate and to care for your children. You can arrange to have children receive your assets only after they reach a certain age and protect disability benefits for beneficiaries with special needs.
Finally, if your net worth is high enough that estate taxes are a concern, you can plan ahead to reduce or eliminate the tax burden (unlike actor James Gandolfini whose estate ended up owing $30 million in estate taxes).
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Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about or need assistance with your estate planning. Remember, it’s important not to put off your estate planning.
We have established safety procedures in light of the COVID-19 pandemic so that you can safely complete this important task.
You may also be interested in obtaining a copy of Estate Planning (in Plain English), written by members of this law firm and available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop (an online bookstore that allows you to support your favorite independently owned bookshop), and wherever self-improvement books are sold.
Photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash
