Florida Probate Attorney and Florida Inheritance Lawyer Florida Probate Attorney Blog

Millions accidentally deposited in bank account

In a strange story AOL reported of a New Zealand couple who mistakenly had around $6 million put in there bank by accident. Likely about the easiest way to create a large estate and be millionaires with the obvious problem that it was not their money and they were not supposed to spend that. Of course the bank realized their error and sought the money back although to make this a more interesting situation the couple apparently had already removed it then left the country to go to the United Kingdom. They will likely face criminal theft charges if they ever return to their country or can be found and brought back for prosecution.

 

 

 

 

Will and Trust Distributions - Unusual provisions

As an estate planning attorney I have been requested to draft some unusual provisions in clients documents as well as hearing and reading about other provisions.

Below is an amusing article of some strange distribution provisions in wills and trusts. The link to the site this information is from is here.

So, what will you leave behind and to whom.......

Sandra West, a wealthy 37-year-old Beverly Hills socialite, left most of her $3 million estate to her brother - provided he made sure she was buried "in my lace nightgown and my Ferrari, with the seat slanted comfortably." That's how she was buried. The Ferrari was surrounded with concrete so no one would be tempted to dig it up and drive away.

Ms. Eleanor Ritchey, the unmarried granddaughter of the founder of Quaker State Oil, died in 1968 with an estate worth around $12 million. According to Scott Bieber in Trusts and Estates magazine: "Under her will, she left over 1,700 pairs of shoes and 1,200 boxes of stationery to the Salvation Army. The rest of the estate went to the dogs." Real dogs, he means - a pack of 150 strays that Ritchey had adopted as pets.

When American patriot Patrick Henry died, everything he owned was left to his wife - as long as she never married again. If she did, he forfeited the whole thing. "It would make me unhappy," he explained, "to feel I have worked all my life only to support another man's wife!" She remarried anyway.

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, tried to leave his birthday. He willed it to a good friend who'd complained that since she was born on Christmas, she never got to have a real birthday celebration.

An attorney in France left $10,000 to "a local madhouse." The gentleman declared that "it was simply an act of restitution to his clients."

An Australian named Francis R. Lord left one shilling to his wife "for tram fare so she can go somewhere and drown herself." The inheritance was never claimed.

A woman in Cherokee County, North Carolina left her entire estate to God. The court instructed the county sheriff to find the beneficiary. A few days later, the sheriff returned and submitted his report: "After due and diligent search, God cannot be found in this county."

Edgar Bergen, famed ventriloquist, left $10,000 to the Actor's Fund of America - so they could take care of his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, and put him in a show once a year. They went along with it.

Cremated Remains, Outer Space & NFL Football

In the past couple months there have been some strange and unusual final resting places for the cremated remains of people. James Dolan who played Scotty on Star Trek had requested to be sent to his final frontier and his remains were sent to outter space following his death. The article can be found here.

On Sunday November 27th the Philadelphia Eagles played the Green Bay Packers in Philadelphia. Although they are two losing teams and no playoff hopes but as the Arizona Repubic reports the game became memorable from the strange scene caused when a 44 year old business owner Chip Noteboom and son ran on the field just before halftime holding a plastic bag of his mothers cremated remains. She was a big fan of the Eagles and that was the only team she followed despite having moved to Arizona in 1972 and not having returned since. "I don't know if that's what she would have wanted, but I know right now that she is absolutely smiling down at me from ear to ear," he said. He mentioned he had no second thoughts despite being immediately arrested and later being questioned for 19 hours.  "I wasn't trying to make a big deal about it," Noteboom said. "I just wanted to do it for my mom."

End of Life Planning in China

Americans complain about and are concerned about our health care system and end of life planning but a truly troubling article about the state of health care especially in respect of costs toward the end of life medical treatments can be found here.

The article indicates that a daughter brought her mom to be cremated merely to avoid losing her savings to medical bills. The article sadly indicates that unfortunately it was not such an isolated incident but that a substantial percentage of people cannot afford medical care so even those who are not terminal and are able to walk around are killing themselves or their family are doing crazy things like in this situation were they are bringing them to be cremated while still alive. Fortunately for this woman she was noticed to be alive since she was crying just prior to having been cremated.

In the US and in Florida the daughter would almost certainly face criminal charges although it was unclear what would happen in China.

If the daughter were found to have caused the death by the greater wait of the evidence. She would not be able to inherit anything from the estate. The Florida killer statute would prevent it.

This article also illustrates the importance of planning for long term care insurance, putting money aside in health care savings accounts or other retirement and health care savings with longer life expectancies and more costly medical care this is becoming a more important issue for all Americans as well as people word-wide.