Wills With A Difference
Your will is constructed to help your family organise the disposal of your estate when you’ve moved on. Whilst yours may be simple, here are one or two memorable ones.
Will’s Demand, Have One On Me
It is sensible to make a will. Most of us know this, but actually getting around to it seems such a inconvenience. How much thought went in these “wills with a difference”?
Even the legendary magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini, couldn’t escape death. Having perished from a burst appendix, one of his biggest surprises came with the will reading. His magicians supplys went to his former partner Theodore, who was also his brother. His magical skills failed on the next item – his bountiful array of tomes on magic and the supernatural. He left these to the American Society for Psychical Research, but only on the term that their research officer J Malcolm Bird, who additionally was the editor of their journal, stood down. They refused the offer the compilation was given to the Library of Congress.
The trained rabbits that he employed in his performance vacated their hats and were given to the kids of friends. Continuing the odd theme, his gave his spouse 10 words, which were a secret code, with the assurance that he would employ these words to reach her from the afterlife. Each year for 10 years, following his death, she reliably held séances, but Houdini never made contact.
Rock and blues singer Janis Lyn Joplin had a short but memorable history. She recorded several rock classics and four albums, including “To Love Somebody” and “Me and Bobby McGee”. After years of drug addiction, she died from an overdose, aged 27. Two days prior to her demise in 1970 her online wills the sum of 2,500 dollars to sponsor an all night wake at her favourite bar so that her mates could “get blasted after I’m gone.” It must have been some wake – that was an appreciable amount of money back in 1970.
We’ve all read about people that, randomly, donate all their estate to the cats’ home, much to the disbelief of their relatives. Many family rows begin when a will is read. As long as the person who made the will is of sound mind and not under duress, there is often nothing that can be done to object to such a decision.
Eccentricities apart, if you die without leaving a will, those whom you would want to inherit will not necessarily be the ones that do so. You could have a partner of several years, but if you’re not married or in a legal partnership, he or she won’t get your money, heedless of your wishes and assurances. This can be sad when it’s not clearly stated and can cause devastating financial results.
The modern method to get your will under way is to search online and source a online wills . However simple your aims are, it’s advisable to get the professionals to write it for you and you can be sure that you’re leaving your estate exactly how you would wish them to be.
Filed under: General Interest