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Home / Estate Planning / Want Privacy? Use a Trust

Want Privacy? Use a Trust

February 23, 2023 by Brandon McGee

Do you like your nosy neighbors keeping tabs of your business?  
Do you want them knowing how much money you left to your kids?  
Do you want Aunt Fern knowing that you left money to your favorite uncle but not to her?  

If you leave only a Will, it will all be a matter of public record. Your neighbors, your relatives, your co-workers, telemarketers, and even more nefarious individuals can just walk right into your local court house and ask to see your file after you have died. By doing so they can see your Will and all the wishes you have expressed in it. In addition, in most states, all the assets controlled by the Will must be inventoried and set forth in the file.

Privacy

A better alternative is to leave your assets in a trust. The assets in the trust are not technically titled in your individual name and avoid probate and, therefore, the public scrutiny of prying eyes.

Here are some examples of what you can discover just from a trip to the court house, all of it public information:

  • Marilyn Monroe left her clothing and personal effects and a significant portion of her estate to Lee Strasberg, the founder of the famous acting school in Hollywood.
  • Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger left a short handwritten will that left 1/3 to his daughter and 2/3 to his son.
  • President Richard Nixon left his “personal diaries” including tapes, notes, etc., to his daughters. If his daughters did not survive him, he left explicit instructions that everything should be destroyed.
  • Benjamin Franklin left his lands in Nova Scotia to his son and his houses in Philadelphia to his daughter. He gave his picture of the King of France to his daughter, Sarah, asking that she not remove the jewels from the frame. He left money to facilitate the freeing of his son-in-law’s slave.
  • President Calvin Coolidge disinherited his son.
  • John F. Kennedy, Jr. gave the carved whale ivory scrimshaw set he inherited from his father to his nephew, John Schlossberg.
  • David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, left almost everything he had left at his death to a charitable foundation.
  • Musician Jerry Garcia left his guitars to their maker, Douglas Erwin. He left 10% of his estate to his brother, Clifford. The assets he left to his daughters were in trust until they reached age 21.

There are many reasons to keep your wishes and your affairs private after your death. Information about your wealth and to whom you are leaving it could leave the recipients vulnerable to unscrupulous people, from benign salespeople trying to sell a product to con artists trying to prey on the grieving. Revelations of whom you have chosen to benefit may offend others who were not preferred.

Your wishes do not have to become common knowledge. The McGee Law Firm can help you keep your private life just that: private.

Compliments of the McGee Law Firm, Attorney Brandon McGee

Written By: The American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys

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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
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Filed Under: Estate Planning, Trust

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.

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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.

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