• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
    • Speaker Connection
  • Services
    • Asset Protection & Business Planning
    • Elder Law & Medicaid Services
    • Estate Planning Services
    • Financial Planning Assistance
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA & Retirement Planning
    • Legacy Planning
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning
    • Pet Planning
    • Probate
    • SECURE Act
    • Special Needs Planning
    • Wills & Trusts
  • Elder Law
    • Coping with Alzheimer’s
    • Guardianship and Conservatorship
    • Medicaid Crisis Planning
    • Medicaid Planning
  • Seminars
  • Webinars
  • Resources
    • Communities We Serve
      • Keller, Texas
    • Elder Law Resources
      • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
      • Elder Law Reports
    • Estate Planning Resources
      • 3 Reasons to Create a Trust
      • Estate and Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Articles
      • Estate Planning Definitions
      • Estate Planning Reports
        • Advanced Estate Planning
        • Basic Estate Planning
        • Estate Planning for Niches
        • Trust Administration
      • Estate Planning Worksheet
      • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
    • Free Consultation
    • Free Estate Planning Seminars
    • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Estate Planning
      • Trust Administration & Probate
    • Newsletters
    • Our Client Care Program
    • Pre Consultation Form
    • Professional Resources
      • Educational Alerts
  • Reviews
    • Our Reviews
    • Review Us
  • Contact Us
  • Blog

McGee Law Firm

Your Resource for Estate Planning, Elder Law and Medicaid / VA Planning

Call Us Today 817-899-3286
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Attend a Free Seminar
Home / Estate Planning / Celebrity Estate Planning

Celebrity Estate Planning

July 7, 2022 by Brandon McGee

If you’ve ever read People, US, or Entertainment Weekly or watched any of the similar television shows, you might be interested to know how some famous celebrities left their assets upon their deaths.  If they left a Will and not a Trust, you can find out:  It’s public record.  That’s right, you can go right to the courthouse and see their Wills for yourself!

Celebrity
  • Gerry Garcia left all of his guitars to Douglas Erwin.
  • John Lennon wanted Sam Green to be Guardian of his children if Yoko Ono was not living at his death.
  • Elvis Presley left his assets for the benefit of his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, his grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley, and his father, Vernon E. Presley.  Elvis’ Will provided that his assets were to go outright to Lisa Marie on her twenty-fifth birthday.
  • Joe DiMaggio left $100,000 to his nephew of the same name.  DiMaggio’s only son’s children were both adopted.  DiMaggio left trusts of at least $250,000 for each great-grandchild.  He left 45% of what was left to his son, and 40% and 15% to his two grandchildren.
  • Richard Nixon left amounts from $10,000 to $70,000 to various grandchildren, in order to equalize gifts made during life.  He then left $50,000 to each grandchild and the balance to his daughters, if living.  His personal and official papers he left to the Nixon Library.
  • Benjamin Franklin, American patriot and former Ambassador to France, left most things to his daughter, including a picture of the King of France set with 408 diamonds.  However, he instructed his daughter not to have any of the diamonds removed for her or her daughters’ “personal ornamentation…and thereby introduce or countenance the expensive, vain, and useless fashion of wearing jewels in this country.”
  • Walt Disney left a very extensive Will he signed less than a year before his death in 1967.  It provided for his wife and children and left money to the Disney Foundation and the California Institute for the Arts.

As you can see, every Will, even those of the Presidents, rock stars, and movie titans are a matter of public record.  If you choose, you can avoid the prying eyes of the public, even if they are only your neighbors or distant relatives.  A properly funded Revocable Living Trust is not a matter of public record.  Such a trust holds legal title to your assets during your lifetime.  The public process of probate only concerns assets titled in your individual name at your death.  As your assets in the Trust are not titled in your individual name, they avoid the probate process and the public scrutiny it entails.

You can do what many famous people did not think of:  Avoid the publicity, expense, and time delays of the probate process through the use of a Trust.  A qualified estate planning attorney can help you set up an estate plan that will keep your affairs from being everybody’s business.

Compliments of the McGee Law Firm, Attorney Brandon McGee

Written By: The American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Brandon McGee
Brandon McGee
Brandon McGee enjoys a successful law practice focusing on estate planning, elder law, Medicaid preplanning and crisis planning, and probate. Brandon and his team combine legal skills with compassion and understanding to develop estate plans that are personalized to the needs of each of their clients.
Brandon McGee
Latest posts by Brandon McGee (see all)
  • Common Mistakes in Estate Planning - March 16, 2023
  • How to Conduct an Estate Plan Review - March 15, 2023
  • What Happens When You Don’t Trust Your Trustee – Part I - March 14, 2023

Filed Under: Estate Planning

About Brandon McGee

Brandon McGee enjoys a successful law practice focusing on estate planning, elder law, Medicaid preplanning and crisis planning, and probate. Brandon and his team combine legal skills with compassion and understanding to develop estate plans that are personalized to the needs of each of their clients.

Primary Sidebar

Blog Subscription

Sign up for our estate planning blog to receive all of our latest news and updates!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube

TESTIMONIALS

Client Review
May 25, 2021
    

Brandon McGee is knowledgeable, experienced and professional regarding Estate Planning. The entire process of multiple meetings to establish our input, draft and sign documents and fund the Trust were well organized and clearly explained. At completion, we were presented with a very well organized binder with the documents (both paper and electronic) and lists for future action.  In short, we find Brandon McGee and his staff to be competent, professional and friendly. ~ Brian C.

default image
Brian C.

Fort Worth Address

Fort Worth
810 W. 10th Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
United States (US)
Phone: (817) 899-3286
See Larger mapGet Directions

Fort Worth Map

map

Southlake Address

Southlake
101 River Oaks Dr., Ste. 110
Southlake, Texas 76092
United States (US)
Phone: (817) 899-3286
See Larger mapGet Directions

Footer

  • Advantages of Working With our Firm
  • About the American Academy
  • Disclaimer
  • Sitemap
  • Contact Us

Connect to Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
footer logo

© 2023 McGee Law Firm
All Rights Reserved