Your cheap will is written to help your loved ones manage the disposal of your estate when you’ve passed away. Whilst yours may be simple, here are one or two memorable ones.
Houdini’s Will
It is practical to make a will. Most of us realize that, but actually doing it seems such a inconvenience. How much consideration went in these “wills with a difference”?
Even the celebrated conjurer and escapologist, Harry Houdini, couldn’t escape death. Having died from a ruptured appendix, one of his biggest surprises came with the reading of his will. His magicians supplys went to his former partner Theodore, who was in addition his brother. His magical powers fizzled on the next term – his ample collection of writings on magic and the supernatural. He left these to the American Society for Psychical Research, but only on the term that the research officer J Malcolm Bird, who also was the editor of their journal, stood down. They refused the conditions the compilation passed to the Library of Congress.
The stage rabbits that he utilised in his tricks abandoned their hats and were given to the children of friends. Continuing the wierd style, his left his wife ten words, which formed a secret code, with the avowal that he would use these words to contact her from the afterlife. Every year for 10 years, following his death, she faithfully held séances, but Houdini never made contact.
Rock and blues singer Janis Lyn Joplin had a short but notable history. She recorded many rock classics and four albums, including “To Love Somebody” and “Me and Bobby McGee”. After years of drugs and drink, she passed away from an overdose, aged 27. Two days before her demise in 1970 her cheapest wills the sum of $2,500 to sponsor an all night wake at her favourite pub so that her friends 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 heard of people that, randomly, give all their money to the cats’ home, much to the dismay of their relatives. Lot’s of family feuds start when a will is read. As long as the person who made the will is of sound mind and not under duress, there is often nothing that can be done to object to such a decision.
Quirks aside, if you die without leaving a will, the people whom you would wish to inherit will not always be the ones that do so. You might have a partner of several years, but if you’re not married or in a legal partnership, he or she won’t receive your estate, heedless of your designs and assurances. This can be problematic when it’s not clearly understood and can cause terrible fiscal consequences.
The modern way to get your will under way is to go online and find a wills online . However simple your aims are, it’s advisable to have the professionals to make it for you and you can be confident that you’re leaving things exactly how you would want.