The dispute over the estate of Robin Williams centers around the definition of certain bequest in the will of various personal items and serves as a good example of why greater specificity is needed in some wills. In terms of the overall estate, the property each party is contesting in proportionally small but they are items of great personal significance to more than one person. Whenever there is a potential conflict over things that might be desired by multiple parties, the client should be advised to be specific concerning who gets what to avoid any bad blood after death. Let the Robin Williams estate battle serve as an example of what could go wrong with the best planned estates.
See Sam Naimi, Robin Williams’ Widow Seeks Clarification of Trust, Wealth Management, June 4,2015
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.
