We have written a lot about the importance of Wills and estate planning. Estate planning typically involves creating a number of legal documents (Will and Testament, trusts, powers of attorney, documents and healthcare directives). But estate planning is also the process of organizing and managing your assets during your lifetime and determining how they will be distributed after your death. It involves making decisions about things like who will inherit your assets, who will manage your affairs if you become incapacitated, and how your assets will be used to provide for your loved ones. These documents allow you to specify your wishes and appoint individuals to carry out your instructions. It is obvious as to why estate planning is important, but many people do not properly plan out their estate or their Last Will and Testament. If ordinary people are not properly planning out their estate, you can imagine the mistakes that celebrities make.
Here are some major mistakes celebrities make when it comes to estate planning:
1. The most glaringly obvious one is to not have a Last Will in place. What happened when Jimi Hendrix died? What happened when Prince died? What happened when Amy Winehouse died? Everything was a legal mess.
2. To create a letter of wishes for your Executor. This makes sense, because you do not want a letter to contravene the wishes in your Last Will. You want to have everything carried out in your Last Will and Testament the way it is written.
3. Pick a great choice for Executor. You probably don’t want to be the type of person who leaves everything to their butler (one celebrity made that mistake).
4. This is a no-brainer, but tell your Executor where your Will is stored. Yes, it sounds obvious, but Olympian Florence Griffith Joyner did not do this when she passed away. You can read more on that here.
Keep all of the above in mind when planning for your estate and creating your Will.