Trial & Heirs™ » Untimely Death

Estate of Bobby Fischer facing a possible Checkmate

Andrew and Danielle — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:04:44 +0000

The New York Times recently featured a story about the person universally recognized as one of the greatest chess players of all time. Robert James “Bobby” Fischer died from kidney disease on January 17, 2008 at the age of 64. He was buried in Iceland, where he lived for the last few years of his life.

He was a King in the game of chess and his life was anything but conventional. So why should Fischer’s estate be simple?

Fischer scorned his 1972 world chess championship, renouncing it in 1975. He retreated from the world and turned his back on fame and fortune.

When he finally emerged for a rematch in 1992, he became a national fugitive. Why? Fischer ignored government warnings not to play the match in Yugoslavia, because of a trade embargo. This made him a criminal. He found refuge in Iceland, which granted him citizenship and prevented deportation.

Being a criminal was not his only character flaw. The former chess prodigy was deeply anti-Semitic, according to the Times article, despite having Jewish parents. The article also says he called a radio station in the Philippines after the 9/11 attacks and called it “a wonderful day.”

Reportedly, when Fischer was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2007, he did not fully appreciate what would happen. He refused the painful treatments prescribed for him and died within a few months, without even a simple will.

This set the stage for a lengthy battle — one that is still far from finished. The three-sided match pits his Japanese wife/girlfriend, Miyoko Watai, vs. a Filipino woman who says he fathered her daughter, Marilyn Young, vs. two estranged nephews. Reportedly, Fischer did not like that their parents practiced Judaism.

Watai (who also is a chess master) says that she and the chess champ were married in 2004, entitling her to at least a part of the estate. But an Icelandic court has already rejected her claim. She could still win on appeal, though.

Young says that her 9-year-old daughter, named Jinky, is the true heir. The Supreme Court of Iceland ordered Fischer’s body exhumed for DNA testing to see if she’s right.

If neither are found to be legitimate heirs, then the nephews will receive the inheritance. On the other hand, if both women win out, Watai would get one-third of the prize money with Jinky getting the rest.

So how much are they maneuvering for? Reportedly, somewhere between one to two million dollars. There’s a very big “but” though.

The United States government isn’t done with Fischer just because he fled to the frozen tundra of Iceland. The IRS says that Fischer never paid taxes on his $3.65 million payday from the 1992 chess championship rematch — not to mention failing to pay taxes for 15 years before that.

In other words, even the winners of the match may find themselves in checkmate, with Uncle Sam being declared the new champ. You can read the full New York Times article here.

How could one of the smartest tacticians in the world have failed to make out a simple will? Friends say that he didn’t believe he was dying.

So add this interesting tale to the long list of reasons why putting off your estate planning is never a good idea. Don’t wait until you’re going to die; who knows when that will be? Even without Japanese wives, Filipino kids, and distant relatives who don’t share your religious views, do you really want your family fighting over your estate when you pass?

Go see an experienced estate planning attorney today. Protect the King, Queen, and all the little pawns in your life before it’s too late.

By Andrew W. Mayoras and Danielle B. Mayoras, co-authors of Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights! and husband-and-wife legacy expert attorneys. As educators across the United States through speaking engagements, print, broadcast, and social media, Danielle and Andrew consistently draw rave reviews and are in high demand. Email them at contact@trialandheirs.com. Find us on Facebook!

George Steinbrenner’s heirs avoid estate tax – or do they?

Andrew and Danielle — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:09:50 +0000

Baseball pioneer George Steinbrenner, owner of the famed New York Yankees’ franchise, died from a heart attack on July 13, 2010, at age 80. Checking in at number 341 on Forbes’ list of richest Americans last year, the Steinbrenner fortune has been estimated at $1.1 billion.

Many publications, including the New York Post, have pointed out that, tax-wise, Steinbrenner chose a great year to die. Due to a quirk in the federal estate tax law, there are no estate taxes for those who die in 2010.

Those who died in 2009 paid a 45% tax for every dollar over $3.5 million ($7 million for married couples who did the proper estate tax planning). There are no estate taxes this year, but next year, the estate tax comes roaring back with only a $1 million exemption and a 55% tax rate.

As the Post article and others have pointed out, this led to a huge tax savings for Steinbrenner’s widow and four children of $500 million (based on 2009 levels) or $600 million (compared to the 2011 limit). Not bad!

So what do Yankees’ fans think about this? They should be pretty happy (assuming, that is, they like having the Steinbrenner family own the Yankees). Heirs of other sports franchise owners have been forced to sell teams to pay estate taxes. For example, in Michigan, the Detroit Pistons are for sale because owner Bill Davidson died in 2009. The estate needs money; his heirs need to plan for the large estate tax bill that will be due one day, because he died before 2010.

In fact, there’s another quirk about the estate tax law that makes it even less likely that the Steinbrenner family will ever sell the team.

The estate tax loophole has a catch. In 2010, heirs of the very wealthy do not get to enjoy a typical tax savings called “step-up in basis”. What does this mean? Normally, when someone dies, their heirs receive the assets at the tax value they are worth as of the date of death. So, when the heirs sell that property, they only pay capital gains taxes on any increase in value after the date of death.

For 2010 estates, however, these normal tax savings are gone (above a certain dollar level). This means that the Steinbrenner heirs have the same tax “basis” that George did when he bought the franchise back in 1973 for a mere $10 million.

In other words, if they chose to sell their 55% ownership in the Yankees’ parent company (which is valued at $1.6 billion), they will have to pay taxes on every dollar over $14.3 million (which is $10 million plus $4.3 million extra that married couples are permitted to credit towards their tax basis amount). This would lead to a huge tax bill to pay based on 55% of stock worth $1.6 billion!

This means the Steinbrenner family will have no choice but to hold onto the New York Yankees’ stock and not sell it, unless they want to pay this large tax. Instead, they’ll likely pass down the stock from generation to generation, unless of course a new tax law gets passed which changes their situation.

Wow, this is complicated! And it’s all because of this one-year estate tax gap. Everyone knew that Congress would pass a new law long before 2010 to close the gap. But, um, we’re still waiting for that to happen. There have been rumors of a retroactive tax — meaning Congress could pass new laws now and try to apply the tax even to those who already died in 2010.

Most experts feel that would be unconstitutional. Certainly, the Steinbrenner heirs (and heirs of other billionaires who have died this year, like Houston oil tycoon Dan L. Duncan, who died with an estate worth an estimated $8 billion dollars) would agree with those experts. They would undoubtedly file lawsuits to challenge any new estate tax laws that are passed which try to impose an estate tax on them after their wealthy loved ones died.

Does all this estate tax stuff leave your head spinning? We’re not surprised. But it’s certainly something you may need to worry about. If you have an estate that may potentially be worth more than $1 million (and this figure includes life insurance), it is essential for you to visit an experienced estate planning attorney for a revocable living trust, as part of a complete estate plan.

Unless, of course, you plan to die this year.

Steve McNair Estate unsettled after one year

Andrew and Danielle — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:58:51 +0000

It’s been just over a year since Steve McNair, the former NFL quarterback, was murdered on July 4, 2009, at the age of 36. The Probate Lawyer Blog covered the initial drama surrounding the estate in a series of articles. In the months that have passed since then, the estate has been relatively quiet. It’s been rather surprising given the early fireworks last summer.

McNair died with an estate worth more than $19 million but without even a basic will. It looked like trouble initially when his wife named their two kids as estate beneficiaries in the probate paperwork, but failed to list his other two kids (from two other mothers). The family was far from harmonious even before McNair was killed.

McNair and his wife, Mechelle, had hired an artist to paint a family portrait. The artist hadn’t been paid and filed a claim against the estate. Before the estate settled and paid the artist $5,000, she revealed an email from McNair. He wrote that his “wife has some disagreements” with his two older boys “who are not by her, so I wouldn’t be having them in the painting.”

So far, the boys and their mothers haven’t been fighting in court against Mechelle, despite the early controversy from last summer. But then again, the estate has been mostly stagnant to this point (other than one wild claim), so they haven’t really had much to fight about yet.

McNair’s prized restaurant in Nashville, Gridiron 9, was closed shortly after he died. Mechelle tried to sell McNair’s interest in that business, but it was blocked by his cousin who co-owned it with him. McNair’s ranching/farming business and his mansion called “The Ranch” (near his childhood home in Mississippi) are also up in the air. McNair’s home in Nashville was for sale before he died but has since been taken off the market.

So in summary, a year has passed, nothing substantial has been sold, and no one knows how much they’ll get. Reportedly, there’s a court hearing set for September 19th, at which the family members will learn how much they’ll inherit.

Delays like this are not unusual for estates left in a mess because of non-existent estate planning. When people don’t take the time to make out a basic will (which is the case with approximately 2/3 of adults in this country), these types of delays and complications are common.

That’s why we recommend that people work with experienced estate planning attorneys to put their affairs in order. In fact, most people should create a revocable living trust. When properly used, it avoids probate court entirely. And it also reduces the costs, delays and potential conflicts that happen for any estate — especially an “intestate” estate (meaning one that has no will).

So what is unusual about this estate (other than the fact it’s worth around $19 million)? How about the murder case.

The police were confident it was an open-and-shut case. McNair’s girlfriend was dead beside him with a gunshot wound in her head and a gun nearby, in an apparent suicide. McNair’s body was riddled with several bullet holes.

But the family of his girlfriend, 20-year-old Sahel “Jenni” Kazemi, say that she wasn’t suicidal. They worked with a retired cop who investigated the case and presented findings to a grand jury, arguing it was a robbery, not a murder-suicide. He points out how unusual it was for McNair to only have $7 in his wallet, when he usually carried hundreds.

The grand jury felt it wasn’t enough evidence to reopen the case. So the matter is officially closed.

Now we’ll have to see how long it takes for his estate to close too.

Forbes: Celebrity Death and Divorce Train Wrecks

Andrew and Danielle — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:48:16 +0000

Forbes.com recently featured an article we wrote about our celebrity-based Trial & Heirs‘ Top Five Estate Planning Tips for Divorcees. Here’s a shortened version. Go to Forbes.com for the full article:

1. Update your will and/or trust. Life events like divorces are a critical time to update all estate planning documents with an experienced attorney.

Take the case of Gary Coleman. Since his death, a variety of documents have surfaced purporting to be his will. We know that Gary Coleman was divorced in 2008 from his wife, Shannon Price. It was on an episode of Divorce Court after all! The problem is that Price claims that she’s entitled to inherit all of Coleman’s assets based on a 2007 handwritten will and as his “common-law wife.” Now it looks like the estate will be tied up in a long and nasty fight. If Gary Coleman had an estate planning attorney draft a clear will after his divorce, the impending legal battle may have been avoided.

2. Don’t forget the insurance. Many people who get divorced forget to change their life insurance beneficiaries to someone other than their ex-spouse.

Dennis Hopper was locked in an ugly divorce fight with his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy-Hopper. She blamed his children for convincing him to start the divorce as a way to cut her out of his estate plan. Hopper asked the divorce judge for permission to change his life insurance policy to remove his wife and their young daughter as beneficiaries. His request was denied and the judge said that issue would have to wait for trial. But Hopper died first, and the life insurance was never changed.

3. Act now, even before the divorce is final. Divorces can be extremely messy and may drag on for years. What happens if one of the spouses dies or becomes disabled during the divorce proceedings?

It’s reported that Tiger and Elin Woods are in divorce negotiations now and that Elin is asking for $750 million. What if Tiger is in a car accident? What money does he want Elin to receive? It is probably a lot less than what his estate planning documents had dictated prior to the divorce. Hopefully, Tiger is prepared for the unexpected and has updated his estate planning documents even before the negotiations are concluded.

4. Choose a new executor and/or trustee wisely. If something does happen to you, whom do you trust to make sure that your beneficiaries are financially protected?

A good example of problems that can arise is the nasty battle going on between Ronald Perelman, the billionaire Revlon chairman, and his ex-father-in-law, Robert Cohen. Perelman was named as the executor under his ex-wife’s will. In spite of crystal clear instructions in the will that showed that his ex valued her relationship with her father, Perelman launched a series of lawsuits against Cohen in the name of her estate. He did this even though Cohen was elderly, infirm and paralyzed. Perelman wouldn’t have been able to do this if his ex-wife hadn’t named him as her executor.

5. Create a new Medical Power of Attorney and Advance Directive. Even if you are comfortable with an ex-spouse making financial decisions, what about the medical decisions?

In Gary Coleman’s case, his ex-wife, Price, did pull the plug after he sustained a head injury and was put on life support. Is this what Coleman would have wanted? We’ll never truly know, but legally Price had the right to make this decision through Coleman’s advance directive.

Tiger Woods pay heed! Elin already came after you with a golf club (allegedly!), do you really want her making your termination of life support decisions?

Michael Jackson Estate Battles – the Year in Review

Andrew and Danielle — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:38:58 +0000

The one year anniversary of Michael Jackson’s shocking death on June 25, 2009 is upon us. While his music and thriller dance moves live on, unfortunately, so do the legal battles over his estate. Let’s moonwalk backwards through the past 12 months to review the courtroom clashes and combative issues involving the King of Pop’s estate.

June 25, 2009 – Michael Jackson unexpectedly dies at the age of 50 as he is about to embark on a comeback concert tour.

June 29 – Katherine and Joe Jackson, Michael’s parents, file to open the probate estate of Michael. They allege that he died without a will and ask for Katherine to be appointed to administer his estate. Katherine filed to be appointed as guardian of Michael’s three children the same day and is granted temporary authority to assume custody of them.

July 1 – John Branca, Michael’s former attorney, and John McClain, his former manager, file their own probate petition, asking the Judge to appoint them as executors of Michael’s estate based on a will Michael signed July 7, 2002. The will names Katherine as the person Michael wanted to care for his children, with Diana Ross as the back-up. The assets are left to the Michael Jackson Family Trust. Estimates of the estate’s value exceed $500 million, despite reports that there was so much debt to render Michael Jackson insolvent.

July 6 – Over Katherine’s strenuous objections, the Judge appoints Branca and McClain as the estate executors on a temporary basis.

July 20 – Katherine’s attorneys lose a preliminary battle in court when the Judge denies Katherine’s legal team the right to see important documents impacting the estate, such as the contract over his concert tour that was canceled when he died. But, she wins the right to be guardian of the kids permanently because Debra Rowe (the biological mother of two of the kids) withdraws her claim to be guardian.

August 6 – Katherine agrees not to challenge the 2002 will during a court proceeding, but reiterates her desire to have Branca and McClain removed as executors, asking the Judge for permission to file a legal petition to disqualify them.

August 24 – According to the LA Coroner, Michael’s death was a homicide caused by too many drugs.

September 3 – Michael’s body is laid to rest.

September 17 – Court documents are revealed showing that Katherine Jackson receives $86,000 per month to support herself and the three kids. Of interest is her monthly $1,000 “grooming allowance.”

September 18 – The Judge gives Katherine permission to challenge the estate executors for “undue influence” without losing her rights as a beneficiary. This set the stage for a challenge that Branca and McClain improperly convinced Michael to name them as executors in his will, instead of Katherine or others.

October 22 – Reports surface that Katherine changed lawyers. The new lawyers plan to take her case in a “new direction” based on “new evidence.” Michael’s brother, Randy, says Michael may not have signed the will because he was in New York the day it was allegedly signed in Los Angeles.

October 28 – The This Is It movie, from a deal inked by Branca and McClain on behalf of the estate with Sony, is released. The movie earns $50 million for the estate (and hundreds of millions of dollars for Sony).

November 10 – Katherine Jackson, represented by new lawyers, drops her legal challenges to Branca and McClain serving as executors. Lawyers for Joe Jackson are shocked over the “secret deal” and called it “despicable.” Joe sues to pick up the claim that Katherine dropped, but the Judge denies his request because he is not a beneficiary.

February 3, 2010 –The Judge approves a request by Branca and McClain to receive 10% of all new deals they sign for the estate (excluding the movie profits and previously-released music).

March 17 – It is widely reported that Branca and McClain ink a deal with Sony to release new Michael Jackson songs through a seven-year deal with Sony, for a whopping $250 million. This nets them each $12.5 million in fees.

May 30 – A British website posts a copy of Michael Jackson’s Trust, which is usually a private document. It reveals that Katherine gets the use of 40% of his assets during her lifetime (the balance then goes to Michael’s children), the children receive 40% of the assets, and 20% is taken off of the top of the Trust assets for charities.

June 20 – Billboard magazine reports that the Michael Jackson Estate has earned more than a billion dollars since he died, in just under a year.

June 21 – Katherine Jackson and a man named Howard Mann disclose that they are about to release a book about Michael from Katherine’s perspective. Mann says he is also going into business with Katherine to sell 273 unreleased songs recorded by Michael that he obtained from a storage locker owned by the Jackson family, until they failed to pay the bill. The estate’s lead lawyer threatens to sue.

Whew! While it’s only been a year, the drama surrounding Michael Jackson’s estate is certain to continue for a long time. The sad fact is that if Michael would have simply transferred his assets into his Trust, much of this drama could have been avoided and would have been out of the public eye so the continuous airing of the family’s squabbles could have been avoided. Take a lesson away from Michael’s estate for your own family. Finish what you start! It’s not enough to simply create a Trust and sign it at the attorney’s office; you need to complete the Trust process by transferring your assets into the Trust.

Florida millionaire left more to her dogs than her son

Andrew and Danielle — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:18:17 +0000

Apparently Leona Helmsley is not alone. Gail Posner of Miami Beach, Florida passed away in March at the age of 67, from cancer. Her only son, Bret Carr, was left one million dollars, despite not being close with her in the years leading up to her death. They did reunite while she was on her deathbed, in the hospital, according to Carr.

So should Carr really complain? A million dollars isn’t so bad.

The first problem, says Carr, is that his mother’s three dogs received a $3 million trust fund and a $8.3 million mansion. But who can put a price on loyalty?

There’s more. Posner’s former staff (including bodyguards, a personal trainer and housekeepers) get $27 million. Wow — that’s some severance package!

Carr says he and his mother had a rocky relationship, but grew closer in the last decade or so, until 2008. What happened then? The staff kicked him out of Posner’s house and convinced his mother to keep him away. He says he captured it all on video.

Carr also says the staff exercised “undue influence” and connived, cajoled, and coerced their way into the will. Mom never would have left all that money to the Chihuahua named Conchita, and the two other dogs, if the staff hadn’t taken advantage of her. They realized, according to Carr’s lawsuit, that convincing her to favor her canine companions would be a great way to keep themselves working (and getting paid) while living in that mansion. Someone has to care for the dogs after all, don’t they?

The Today Show has a complete feature on the case.

While leaving millions to dogs (and millions more to staff) is a bit unusual, cases built around claims of undue influence are common. In fact, with the continued economic woes our country faces, these issues are popping up more and more — from Florida to Michigan, New York to California, and everywhere in between.

Every states has laws to help families who believe that a will or trust was due to undue influence, as opposed to the true wishes of a deceased loved one. These cases aren’t easy to prove, but are often necessary when someone has been targeted by an unsavory caregiver, family member, or gold-digger.

That’s why experienced probate litigation attorneys are there to help.

More Gary Coleman wills … and yes, more fighting

andrewwmayoras — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:57:43 +0000

The craziness surrounding the Gary Coleman estate, a mere two weeks after he passed, continues to grow. We now have not one – but two – new wills that recently surfaced.

As The Probate Lawyer Blog recently discussed, Coleman’s ex-wife, Shannon Price, produced a new handwritten codicil (meaning a will amendment) that favors her. Dated about one week after the couple married in 2007, the document, in Coleman’s handwriting, spelled out that everything should pass to Price.

TMZ has obtained and posted a copy of the handwritten will. One part of it is very interesting:

“I have made this change of free will and and was not coerced in any way. This I have done because of my personal selfishness and weakness and I love her with all of my heart.”

Why would Coleman feel the need to spell this out if there was no question of coercion? And what did he mean by “selfishness and weakness”? Did it have anything to do with the fact that Coleman said on television that he was still a virgin even after marrying Price?

As we also mentioned in our last article, a big problem with this 2007 handwritten document is that Utah has a law that makes wills and other estate planning documents, signed prior to the divorce, invalid to the extent they leave assets to former spouses after a divorce.

Don’t expect Price to take tackle that problem lying down. Her lawyer already filed to admit the document into probate. They try to get around the pesky law by arguing that Price and Coleman were actually “common-law” husband-and-wife. In other words, even though they weren’t officially married, they still considered themselves to be married.

That couldn’t work, could it?

Well, in most states (about 40 of them), no, it couldn’t. But Utah actually recognizes and permits common-law marriages in some circumstances. The happy couple had to uniformly hold themselves out as married, live together, and share marital rights and obligations. Price’s attorney says that she and Coleman did do all of this — right down to filing joint tax returns and even continuing sexual relations (so there goes that “virgin” part, right?).

But can this argument work when they were divorced so recently (in 2008)?

Actually yes, it might. There is legal precedence in Utah for a married couple who divorces and then is recognized by a court of law as having a valid common-law marriage. But that law hasn’t been applied in the context of Utah’s probate law that cuts ex-spouses out of prior wills and trusts.

It’s still a long hill for Price to climb. She has to prove that they qualify for this law and that the common-law marriage law is intended to be an exception to the probate law about ex-spouses not inheriting. So it will be an interesting legal battle, both factually and legally.

And to complicate matters further, the question of who will be opposing Price is also changing. The current executor is Dion Mial (a former manager of Coleman). But the 1999 will appointing him appears to have been replaced with a 2005 will appointing a female friend and business associate of Coleman, Anna Gray (who reportedly used to run his corporation). Here’s the Salt Lake Tribune story about this latest will.

Gray says that she even lived with Coleman, in a separate bedroom, until Price came along in 2007 and gave her the boot.

The attorney representing Gray filed the paperwork on Friday to have her appointed in place of Mial as estate executor.

Price’s previous request to the probate court to recognize Price as the executor is scheduled for a hearing on Monday, June 14th. Undoubtedly, Gray and her attorney will be there as well.

So what do Coleman’s estranged parents have to say about all this? They are staying out of it, they told the media. In fact, they feel the whole thing is disrespectful to their late son (from whom they embezzled more than a million dollars, according to a judgment Coleman won against them years ago).

Even without Mr. and Mrs. Coleman involved, this case looks to be a long and messy one. After the issues of common-law marriage and the interplay of the two Utah laws are resolved, there still will be the question of whether Coleman’s handwritten will codicil was really valid.

The circumstances of it and that funny wording (especially when combined with Price’s actions around the time of Coleman’s death — including selling deathbed pictures of him to a British tabloid) certainly raise questions of undue influence.

Undue influence is a legal challenge to a will, trust or other legal document that is based on whether someone, although legally competent, was coerced into signing it, usually by someone they trusted. We include a story in our book, “Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights!”, about a girlfriend who used sex to coerce her elderly boyfriend into leaving her everything (and cutting out his children).

Did Price use sex, or the promise of sex, to influence Coleman?

Certainly, this is an aspect that Gray, Mial, or whomever else opposes Price’s claims should examine with their lawyers in depth.

If you have a loved one who signed a new will or trust under questionable circumstances, don’t hesitate to talk to an experienced probate litigation attorney about undue influence.

More fireworks for the Gary Coleman Estate

andrewwmayoras — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:53:17 +0000

The Probate Lawyer Blog posed the question a few days ago: Will there be a fight over Gary Coleman’s estate? It looks like we have an answer — a resounding “Yes!”.

And it all centers around Gary Coleman’s final wishes. The 1999 will has been released. You can download Gary Coleman’s Will (courtesy of TMZ).

It’s very brief (all of a page and a half), and it appoints his friend Dion Mial as executor and directs that all of his assets be turned over to a trust he created called the Millennium Edge Trust.

It also states that he should be cremated and that only those with no “financial ties” to him be invited to his wake. Coleman wants them to ”look each other in the eyes and say they really cared personally for Gary Coleman.” And no members of the press are invited!

Based on this language, ex-wife Shannon Price may not be included. It sure looks like she has financial ties to him — at least, if she has anything to say about it.

She says that Coleman hand wrote a new will (or more specifically, a codicil) in 2007 that left her everything.

There are only two problems with this. For one, Utah law (where Coleman lived when he passed) provides that wills and other instruments (meaning trusts, beneficiary designations, etc.) naming a divorced spouse are null and void, unless they were written after the divorce was final. So a 2007 will or codicil wouldn’t help Price, who was divorced from Coleman later than 2007.

The second reason is that former Diff’rent Strokes co-star Todd Bridges says he has a different will — a secret will no less — that spells out what Coleman really wanted. It doesn’t appear to favor Price, and Bridges says it certainly doesn’t name Coleman’s parents (from whom Coleman was estranged because they stole money from his trust fund — according a court of law that ruled in favor of Coleman after he sued his parents).

Bridges also says that he believes Coleman is entitled to a handsome pension from his acting days, just like Bridges gets, and that Coleman did not make arrangements for Shannon Price to receive this money.

So does Shannon Price have any financial ties to Coleman? According to the executor, Mial, she sure does. He accuses Price of selling death-bed photographs of Coleman, from the hospital, to Globe Magazine. He also says she was raiding his home of personal property.

Price at first denied selling the pictures, but a spokesperson later backed off, admitting she really needed money.

Price also vows to fight for the handwritten will and for her claim in the Coleman Estate.

And she plans to spread his ashes on a train track, because he loved trains. We doubt Mial, the estate executor, will let that happen, because he’s in charge of Coleman’s final arrangements. At least, he is in charge until the “secret will” is filed with probate.

All this drama and we’re only a week and a half past the day Coleman died. What’s going to happen next week?

Celebrity estate battles seem to be growing in frequency. While they are interesting to read about, they can also be educational and help your family avoid fighting in probate court like the celebrities’ heirs. Want to find out how? Trial & Heirs can help.

Michigan Bar Journal Review of Trial & Heirs

andrewwmayoras — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:51:16 +0000

The State Bar of Michigan’s montly journal has recently reviewed our book, Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights!. Here are some of the highlights:

After reading Trial & Heirs, I am convinced that I need an estate plan. It’s time to get serious about, you know, death. Danielle and Andrew Mayoras, Michigan estate-planning attorneys who are married to each other, have written a lighthearted book. But a reader can’t miss what they’re really talking about: the dreaded D-word. Isn’t the whole point of estate planning to plan for your own inevitable death? Luckily, the Mayorases probably agree with Bugs Bunny: “Don’t take life too seriously; no one gets out alive.”

The whole point of estate planning is to control your property from the beyond. Or, if the decedent (legalese for dead person) is a bit more altruistic, to lessen the pain of death, taxes, and unnecessary disputes for survivors. And most disputes are avoidable.

In fact, “Avoid a family fight!,” a sidebar in every chapter, is one of the more important features of this book. We all know nice people from loving families who, after the death of a parent, suddenly became greeneyed monsters. These sidebars discuss, very briefly, how to slay the monster—or, better yet, avoid the monster’s appearance altogether. The authors offer tips, some obvious and others not, for avoiding disputes. In one sidebar, for example, the tip is to avoid fighting because of the legal fees the estate will incur (and this from two lawyers!). The authors give two examples: the Johnson & Johnson legacy, which took 210 lawyers, 22 law firms, and $24 million in fees (the wife, a former chambermaid, took $300 million); and the Leona Helmsley estate, which was settled between her grandchildren and her dog (Trouble, the dog, took $2 million).

Mere mortals like you and me needn’t worry about estates of that size, but everyone should be concerned about the emotional costs of family fights. And family fights result from poor estate planning. Where there is uncertainty in a will or estate plan, there will be unrest. Where there are gaps, there will be greed. And where there are mistakes, there will be fights.

* * *

If you are an estate-planning lawyer, you shouldn’t read this book. Do read, however, the “official disclaimer” on the first page; it’s clever. But consider buying the book in bulk as gifts for your clients or as a marketing tool. You’ll have to accept the overuse of exclamation points, the overdone design, and the celebrity caricatures that are not all recognizable. But remember that an informed client is a better client, and a client who understands some of your language is one who is easier to talk to. I bet you can get a quantity discount from the publisher.

What do they mean too many exclamation points?!?! How dare they?!!!! We would never! ever! use . . . well, you get the point.

Seriously, if you’d like to read the whole review, here it is.

Will there be a fight over Gary Coleman’s estate?

andrewwmayoras — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:48:44 +0000

Gary Coleman died just over a week ago, on May 28, 2010. And in that week, there have already been enough surprises to spark a whole series of “Whatcha talkin ’bout Willis!”’s.

First came the question of how Gary Coleman died at the age of 42. According to the 911 tapes, Shannon Price (who called herself his wife) summoned emergency personnel when he fell and hit his head. She was frantic over what to do with her “husband”.

Sadly, he didn’t recover from the accident, despite being “conscious and lucid” the next morning, according to a Provo, Utah hospital spokesman. He took a turn for the worse and was put on life support until Price decided to pull the plug, only two days after he hit his head.

Coleman’s parents were bothered after they learned of his death from the media. Of course, these parents weren’t exactly close with their son. He had successfully sued them in 1989, claiming they had stolen much of his earnings as a childhood star of Diff’rent Strokes (among other shows), which had been held in trust for him.

Despite their estrangement, Coleman’s parents wanted answers as to how he died. They questioned how Price could have decided to pull the plug and terminate his life support.

They were concerned when it was revealed that Price wasn’t actually Coleman’s wife. They were married in 2007, after dating for five months. But Coleman and the 22-year-old Price divorced in August, 2008. In fact, they even appeared on an episode of Divorce Court together. You can watch it on youtube — here are the highlights: Divorce Court video.

So how was Price legally able to end Coleman’s life if they were no longer married?

Coleman had signed an important estate document that every adult needs — an advanced health care directive. States use different names for legal documents like this, which record end-of-life wishes and appoint a decision-maker when the signer is no longer able to make his or her own decisions. That document, according to the Utah hospital where Coleman died, gave Price the legal authority to end life support. Price says she didn’t want Coleman to end up in a “Terri Schiavo” situation.

In fact, even if they had been married, Price still would not have been able to legally terminate life support without a legal document like the advanced health care directive (unless she first obtained a court order).

Price also made funeral arrangements for Coleman, to be held in Salt Lake City this weekend. Those plans had to be put on hold though.

Why? Because Coleman’s parents went to court to stop the funeral because Price was no longer his wife. While she had the power to end his life, her legal authority ended once he died, so she didn’t have the legal authority to plan his funeral.

Instead, Coleman’s parents filed to open their son’s estate in probate court, saying he had no will. Under intestate law (which applies when there is no will), they would stand to inherit his estate and to control it as executors — including the decision of when and how to bury his body. They wanted to fly Coleman’s remains back to his boyhood home of Zion, Illinois for a funeral there.

Coleman’s Utah-based attorney said Coleman had no will. In fact, he had been trying to convince Coleman to sit down and sign a will for a long time. Apparently, Coleman was planning to see the lawyer to create a will in a few weeks. So there is no will, right?

Not so fast. Apparently, Coleman did have a will. He had an older one, from 1999 (before he moved to Utah where he later met Price). Despite his failure to update the will after either his marriage or his divorce, the will would still be valid. At least, that’s assuming there are no other wills that surface later.

And what does it say? Because it hasn’t been filed with the probate court yet, we don’t know (but it will be revealed soon because wills are public documents one they’re filed in probate court).

So far, it’s only been reported that the estate executor is named Dion Mial, a friend and former manager that Coleman reportedly trusted to handle his final wishes. Because of this, his parents withdrew their filing, and the funeral plans are now up in the air.

Whew! It’s only been eight days. What kind of dramatics will there be once the rest of the will — including who gets to inherit what — is revealed?

And, what type of joint assets remain between Coleman and Price? If he never updated his will after the divorce, maybe Price is still a joint owner of his bank accounts, home, or investments (which is common between many married people).

In fact, reportedly, Coleman and Price were still living together and even planned to remarry, once Coleman’s earlier health problems improved. So Coleman still could have provided for her, even without updating his will since 1999. But, whatever plans he made or didn’t make could very likely lead to fighting in probate court, because his legal documents weren’t updated. The terms of the divorce judgment may also come into play.

Judging from the drama of the first week, this estate could turn out to be a wild one.

And let this case be a good lesson for you and your loved ones. No one is promised tomorrow. Update your wills, trusts and other legal documents. It’s especially important after life events like marriages and divorces.

And if you don’t have an advanced health care directive, medical power of attorney, living will, or similar document, take care of it soon. If Coleman hadn’t signed a document like that, then Price would have needed to go to court to terminate his life support. His estranged parents would have received notice of the court hearing and had the right to fight the decision. That could have been a very ugly fight, indeed.

Every adult in this country who doesn’t have a valid document allowing someone to make medical, financial and end-of-life decisions in case of disability should see a good estate planning lawyer and protect themselves and their families.