Yogi Berra made as much of a name for himself due to his immensely quotable sayings as his hall of fame baseball career. However, he never went to great lengths to cash in on his persona settling for a handful of ghostwritten books and whatever product endorsements he could pickup. As a result, he died with an estate that, while substantial, did not place him into the stratosphere of wealth that many of today’s elite athletes possess. This fact occurred in no small part because Berra had little interest in amassing a fortune, instead preferring a simpler life that afforded luxury but did not offer the chance for $10 million yachts or other prestige items the wealthy use to remind the world they have money and insecurity. That is what makes the Berra story so refreshing, he was a man who excelled in many aspects of his life but never let his primary goal be to make money for the sake money.
See Scott Martin, Yogi Berra Never Cashed In: Constantly Quoted Career Had Estate Planning Dark Side, The Trust Advisor, September 27, 2015.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.
