All's well that ends well when it comes to a client's estate plan, one might say. Whether it truly ends well often depends on the last will and testament, a critical document in wealth transfers.
From William Shakespeare, who left to his wife his "second-best bed" — a much-scrutinized line that's been interpreted as both a calculated snub and a loving gesture — to Napoleon Bonaparte, whose epic will specified what should be done with his hair, the famous dead abound in examples of extra precision when it comes to ensuring their legacies through this document.
For celebrities who failed to spell out their last wishes with specificity in a will, trouble has brewed after their passing. Marilyn Monroe left the bulk of her assets to her acting coach and said in her will that she intended for him to distribute those, "in his sole discretion," to her friends and colleagues. But instead, upon the coach's death his second wife, who may have had no connection to Monroe, came into possession of most of the icon's estate — she then spent the next several decades profiting off Monroe's name, image and likeness.
So it's understandable that clients of all wealth levels who want their last wishes to be respected might have some unusual requests or provisions in their wills.
For Make a Will Month, Financial Planning spoke with experts in estate planning and found three types of unusual will features that advisors can look out for in their work with clients.
