Celebrity Estate Lessons – Burt Reynolds

No one wants to be disinherited in their parent’s Will, especially if that parent is a celebrity. However, that’s exactly what happened to Burt Reynolds' son.

Reynolds was married to his second wife, Loni Anderson, when they adopted their son Quinton. He and Anderson divorced in 1994. This is often the recipe for disinheritance. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case here.

It seems that in Reynolds’ case, disinheriting isn’t as nefarious as it often seems. Reynolds had both a Trust and a Pour Over Will. The Pour Over Will is sort of exactly what it sounds – it takes care of anything that isn’t covered in a Trust. For example, if I bought a car, didn’t get a chance to put it in my Trust, and then died the next day, my Pour Over Will would cover that. Often times Trusts aren’t completely funded and a number of things are left over to be dealt with by the Will.

However, this was not the case for Burt Reynolds, whose Trust appeared to be properly funded with very little left outside the Trust. So, when Reynolds put that “I intentionally omit [my son] from this, my Last Will and Testament, as I have provided for him during my lifetime in my Declaration of Trust,” he may not have been completely leaving him out of his estate plan.

As we’ve mentioned before, putting your wealth in a Trust can help keep the distribution of your estate private, so we don’t know for sure that anything was left to Quinton. However, it seemed that father and son had a very close relationship, so it’s likely that at least part of Reynolds’ estate was left to him.

If you have a case where you think you may need to disinherit a family member, it’s good to contact an attorney and have them make sure everything is drafted correctly. Give us a call and we can schedule a consultation to go over your needs.