Celebrity Estate Battles
The only difference between estate battles of famous people and regular people are the headlines. Perhaps entertainers, politicians, billionaires, and others with giant ambitions (and egos) find it difficult to imagine their own mortality. Their estate planning mistakes provide useful lessons for the rest of us on the importance of estate planning.
Mistake #1: Failing to Plan
What do Abraham Lincoln, Howard Hughes, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Prince all have in common? Each died intestate. In other words, each died without a last will and testament. They left their loved ones with years of stressful, costly litigation and family strife. Jimi Hendrix was only 27 when he died, but it took 45 years for his estate to be settled. Consequently, dying intestate is by far the most common estate planning mistake.
Mistake #2: Avoiding Updates
Failing to update estate planning documents is the second biggest mistake. The actor Heath Ledger had a will, executed in 2003 in his native Australia, long before his successful acting career. His will was never updated to reflect his becoming a parent or living in the United States. His daughter Matilda was lucky: Ledger’s parents and sisters inherited his entire estate, and five years after his death, they gave his daughter everything. Few estate mishaps have such happy outcomes.
An estate plan is like a home – it needs to be maintained regularly, updated when circumstances change and every few years, refreshed. When tax laws change, which has happened often in recent years, planning from ten or even five years ago may no longer work and opportunities may be missed.
Mistake #3: Forgetting to Plan for Incapacity
Battles between family and girlfriends over the care of media billionaire Sumner Redstone made headlines for years. Radio personality Casey Kasem’s children sued their stepmother about control of his medical care, and when he died, the children brought a wrongful death lawsuit against her as his widow. The families of Glen Campbell, Tim Conway, and Etta James also have engaged in public battles over the rights to make medical decisions for loved ones incapacitated by dementia.
Documents need to be prepared in advance to clearly state the person’s health care wishes, before losing the legal capacity to plan. This takes a large burden off the family and avoids public or private battles.
Mistake #4: Missing Details After Divorce or Remarriage
Thinking that a divorce and an updated will take care of estate plans poses problems for people who marry and divorce multiple times. Named beneficiaries supersede wills, so someone who is named on an insurance policy or retirement account may remain a beneficiary, regardless of divorce. When Sonny Bono died, his first wife, Cher sued his estate for unpaid alimony, despite her own wealth.
Success: Estate Plan Shows Caring for Loved Ones
When comedian Jack Benny died in 1974, he made a bequest to his florist, asking for one long stemmed red rose be sent to his wife every day. Making preparations in advance for illness and death is an opportunity to show loved ones that you care about them, now and forever.
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