Being in good relationships with your family is the most valuable thing in the world. When you get older, you constantly remind yourself of the beautiful moments that you have with your family. These are usually the most beautiful memories that one person can have. Still, are all the families in the world in good relationships?
Many families are not in good relationships. Many different conflicts can happen and one of them is definitely probate disputes. This is probably the main reason in the world why family members start to argue. If you are involved in probate disputes, then you should get more information on the website that we attached.
You never know when something like this could happen. Still, if an average family can experience something like this, you can imagine which things are happening in the lives of celebrities. For instance, a celebrity dies and he did not do the estate planning in the right way. Many problems and conflicts will come after his death.
We understand that this topic is hard and that is probably the reason why many families avoid talking about it. Here are a couple of celebrity estate stories that could teach you a lesson.
Contents
1. Casey Kasem
Source: cbsnews
Here is the first example that shows how proper estate planning is important. Casey Kasem was an American Top 40 DJ. The true problems started to arrive after he died. For about 1 year, his body has not been buried. Believe it or not, the family battled over his care and the right to visit him before he died. However, after his death, they started could not make an agreement of what they should do with the body. Besides that, they are also fighting over for his two million dollar life insurance policy. He had two kids from his prior marriage and they accused his widow of causing his death.
As you can see, people can’t make an agreement for some normal things. This situation was too stressful for each family member. They were not able to make an agreement because their “bad” emotions took over the good ones.
2. Robin Williams
Source: people
You did not have to know Robin Williams personally. When you look at his eyes, you simply see that he has a good heart. Still, it looks like he had many problems during life. However, the main problem started when he died. According to many media, this great comic actor left behind multiple trusts to benefit his family members. There were also some additional trusts from the period before he got divorced.
When you know that no probate estate was field, together with these trusts, you can conclude that Williams did estate planning in a proper way. Many people around him were concerned because they thought Robin Williams was in financial distress. However, the value of the real estate that he owned was around 20 million dollars in equity.
Well, this is an example of what each person should do. We now know that Robin Williams suffered from Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson’s disease. However, he created trust many years ago before that. Because of that, the documents that he signed were all valid. If he has done that after he became ill, families would fight over to prove the validness of the document.
3. Philip Seymour Hoffman
Source: parade
Well, this is an example that happens often and people make a huge mistake because of that. The former Oscar winner simply did not want to create a trust even when his lawyers told him to do that. The reason for that was unbelievable – he didn’t want to have “trust fund” kids.
Instead, everything that he possessed went to his girlfriend. More precisely, he left everything to the mother of his kids. He thought that she is going to take care of the money of their kids.
Unfortunately, this was a huge mistake. His estate planning left huge tax bills in value of 34 million dollars. All these things could be avoided only if he left everything directly to his kids.
This is an example of how estate planning should not look.
4. Mickey Rooney
Source: thevintagenews
The story about Mickey Rooney is maybe the saddest one from our list. He passed away when he was 93. Still, this late child actor died almost penniless because of the exploitation by his wife’s family member. Everyone should be ashamed of this, but that was not the case with this family. They started to fight over the court. As we said, there was almost no money to battle for. Still, their desire to “win” was so powerful and they started to fight about where he should be buried.
5. Joan Rivers
Source: wfae
Joan Rivers died when she was 81. Many people in this world would say that living for 81 years is a success. Still, this is not the case when we talk about Joan. She was definitely one of the most active people of her generation.
Anyway, Melissa Rivers hired a couple of lawyers to research what exactly happened in the operating room. This is something that happens quite often when the death of your beloved ones is the result of medical malpractice or negligence.
However, she had luck, because Joan Rivers did a proper estate planning. Besides that, she also made an end-of-life document. Because of that document, her mother was able to die with dignity.
6. Tom Clancy
Source: usatoday
The story about Tom Clancy is another example of unclear estate planning. This late author had the 82 million dollar estate. Still, the problem arrived when the court could not determine who is going to pay 8 million dollars of estate taxes. There were two different options. One of those options is that his kids from a prior marriage should pay for everything. If that’s not the case, then his widows should share everything between them. Logically, this had consequences and families started to fight over the money and estate taxes.
Conclusion
Do you still think that proper estate planning is unnecessary? People do not understand how important this is for the future of their family members. Money is just a piece of paper. Why should your beloved once argue because of that?
