Wills With An Exceptional Twist
Your will is written to help your family manage the disposal of your estate when you’ve passed away. Whilst yours may be simple, here are one or two with some quirks to them.
Will’s On Ice With A Twist
It seems prudent to make a will. Most of us understand this, but actually getting around to it seems such a inconvenience. How much thought went in these “wills with a difference”?
Even the celebrated magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini, couldn’t trick death. Having perished from a ruptured appendix, one of his biggest surprises came with the reading of his will. His magic equipment went to his former partner Theodore, who was in addition his brother. His magical skills fizzled on the next term – his appreciable library of books on magic and the occult. He left these to the American Society for Psychical Research, but with the condition that the research officer J Malcolm Bird, who also was the editor of their journal, stood down. They refused the terms the compilation was given to the Library of Congress.
The trained rabbits that he employed in his act vacated their hats and were divided around the children of friends. Continuing the strange style, his gave his wife ten words, which formed a secret code, with the avowal that he would use these words to contact her from the afterlife. Each year for ten years, following his death, she faithfully held séances, but Harry never made contact.
Rock and blues singer Janis Lyn Joplin had a brief but notable career. She wrote many rock anthems and four albums, including “To Love Somebody” and “Me and Bobby McGee”. After years of drugs and drink, she died from an overdose, aged twenty seven. Two days prior to her demise in 1970 her wills the sum of 2,500 dollars to sponsor an all night wake at her favourite pub so that her mates could “get blasted after I’m gone.” It must have been some party – that was a large amount of money back in 1970.
We’ve all read about people that, randomly, give all their estate to the dogs’ home, much to the dismay of their family. Lot’s of family rows begin when a will is read. As long as there is no reason to doubt the clarity and freewill of the person when the will is made, there is often little that can be done to object to such a decision.
Quirks apart, if you pass on without leaving a will, those whom you would want to inherit will not always be the ones that do so. You might have a partner of many years, but if you’re not married or in a legal partnership, he or she won’t receive your money, regardless of your wishes and assurances. This can be sad when it’s not clearly understood and can cause awkward financial consequences.
The current way to get your will started is to go online and source a cheap wills . However basic your aims are, it’s advisable to get the professionals to make it for you and you can be assured that you’re leaving your estate exactly how you would want.