When people think about estate planning, and specifically about who they would like to receive their assets when they are gone, they tend to concentrate on the things that have a high monetary value, like bank accounts, investments, or real estate.\u00a0 But dividing up cash or other liquid assets is the easy part.\u00a0 What is much trickier and likely to instigate intra-family disputes is the distribution of items of personal property that tend to have heightened sentimental value.\u00a0 That is precisely the nature of the dispute that has broken out between the widow and the surviving children of Robin Williams.<\/p>\n
Prior to his death this past August, it seems Williams had extensive estate planning in place to address his roughly $50 million estate.\u00a0 The precise contents of his plan are not public but there are fairly good indications he created legacy trusts to protect the assets he wanted to leave to his three children and an irrevocable real estate trust designed to shelter his posh home in Tiburon and his ranch property from estate taxes.\u00a0 He had also entered into a prenuptial agreement with Susan Williams, his third and surviving wife, who was not the mother of his three surviving children.<\/p>\n
However, despite Williams\u2019 fairly reasoned foresight, we have learned lately that a fierce legal battle has erupted between Susan and Robin\u2019s three children.\u00a0 The indications are not that the dispute has focused on the allocation of large portions of that $50 million estate.\u00a0 Rather, the current dispute involves contesting claims on items of personal property such as bicycles and his personal collections of fossils, graphic novels, and action figures.\u00a0 Granted, the fair market value of those particular items is undoubtedly heightened because of their connection with the beloved actor\/comedian.\u00a0 But the key point to observe is that distributing those personal items probably was not the main focus of his planning.<\/p>\n
In a marriage where the surviving spouse is not the parent of the surviving children, the likelihood of acrimony is increased.\u00a0 We have no idea whether Susan Williams and the children got along well before the death of Robin Williams but it is quite clear that their respective interests are not well aligned now.<\/p>\n
The best way to deal with the allocation of personal property is to provide instructions for what is to happen to each and every item of personal property.\u00a0 Of course, that may be burdensome if the list of items is lengthy.\u00a0 So a practical compromise is to provide specific instructions for the distribution of particular pieces that stand out due to sentimental value or family history. Then, there should be instructions to the Executor or Trustee to use their discretion to distribute the other items in an equitable manner.\u00a0 Sometimes when there is no good way to divide a single item amongst multiple beneficiaries who will inevitably fight about it, it may be a better approach to instruct the Executor or Trustee to sell the item and divide up the cash proceeds.\u00a0 Depending on the circumstances, it may also be a good strategy to gift items to loved ones while you are alive.\u00a0 When seniors are downsizing their home is an excellent time to do that.<\/p>\n
In the trust planning we do for our clients, we often include provisions requested by clients to deal with the distribution of specific items like jewelry or musical instruments or items of furniture.\u00a0 But apart from such specific language in the trust, we also customarily include a simple document we term the \u201cPersonal Property Memorandum.\u201d\u00a0 That is just a blank list where clients are invited to add whatever instructions they want, to direct their Trustee to distribute specific items of property.\u00a0 We think that is a solid approach to deal with the issue.<\/p>\n
Please call us at 860-769-6938 if you have any questions about the issues presented above or if you care to discuss any other planning issues with us.<\/p>\n
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