Lessons From Tom Clancy’s Estate

With celebrity estates receiving so much attention lately, it seems as though some kind of poor planning epidemic has broken out.  However, celebrities are not any worse at planning their estates than the rest of us.  We make the same mistakes as they do, except our oversights are not spread across the tabloids and talked about in major news networks. 

As such, the vast majority of common estate-planning issues go unnoticed, except by those directly affected.  The recent “rash” of highly publicized celebrity estates offers unique insight into a number of extremely common issues that would normally go under the public’s radar, some of them regarding blended families. 

An interesting example is the fight brewing over Tom Clancy’s estate.  His wife, Alexandra Clancy, is attempting to shift up to $16 million in estate tax responsibility from her portion for the estate to that of Tom’s four children form his previous marriage.  Her main argument is that the estate’s executor wrongly allotted a large portion of the tax burden to a family trust of which she is the primary beneficiary.  Mrs. Clancy says that Tom modified his will in 2013 to ensure that her share of the trust fell under the marital deduction and would escape estate taxation, forcing the entire tax burden on the smaller shares of his four children. 

See David H. Lenok, A Clear and Present Danger, Wealth Management, Oct. 3, 2014.

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.