Celebrity Estate Lessons – Frank Sinatra

So a lot of celebrities get their estate planning wrong, there are of course the ones that get it right on the nose. A great example is Frank Sinatra. Frank had a no contest clause in his Will, stating that if any of his beneficiaries initiated one of 13 different legal proceedings they would be completely disinherited from the Will.

Another clever clause had to deal with his spouse. Frank Sinatra left his wife at the time 25% of his royalties, but specified that not only did they have to still be married at the time of his death, but they had to be living together as well. While there are a lot of reasons for a couple to not live together besides marital troubles, there are LOTS of people that are divorced in fact but not on paper. This could be a creative way to make sure that the people you want to inherit your assets will.

There's a lot of little clauses that can be included in your Will to make sure it does exactly what you want. Want a very specific piece of jewelry to go to your great-niece? Your favorite fishing lure to be donated to the American Museum of Fly Fishing? Your iguana to inherit your vintage car collection? There's a lot of weird things that are possible in estate planning (although not the iguana one) and we'd be happy to help you figure out how to make them happen!