More Turkey Teachings from Celebrities’ Estate Planning Mistakes
Whitney Houston has been battling her step-mother over a $1 million dollar life insurance policy that her father left. The step-mother claims that the life insurance policy is supposed to go to her to pay off the mortgage of the house that was left to her, but Whitney argues the money goes to her because she was named as the sole beneficiary of the policy.
What we learn from Whitney: Life insurance should be combined with legal documents to assure proper disposition. You should name trusts as beneficiaries and then explicitly express in the trust who is to receive what, and why each person is to receive it.
Arturo Gatti is a former world champion boxer who died, and his family suspects that his wife killed him. His mother and brother are fighting the wife over who should inherit the $3.4 million dollar estate. To complicate matters, there are two conflicting wills at issue in this case.
What we learn from Arturo: Update your will as soon as you re-marry, and any time that any other major events happen in your life that could change the desired disposition of your property. Then, store original wills in a safe place where an executor can locate them and be sure to destroy duplicate copies or older wills.
Nina Wang was the richest woman in Asia and died in 2007. She signed a will shortly before her death that left all her property to her feng shui adviser. There was a prior will that left all her estate to charity. After her death, the family accused the feng shui adviser of undue influence or forgery, and he lost his appeal on the matter.
What we learn from Nina: Families should be on the lookout for close, new friends of elderly testators who may try to unduly influence those testators.
See Pass the Turkey With A Side Of MORE Celebrity Estate Planning Stories, Forbes, November 21, 2011.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.