Unusual Wills
Your will is drawn up to help your loved ones organise the disposal of your estate when you’ve moved on. Whilst yours may be simple, here are a few unusual ones.
Houdini’s Will
It makes sense to make a will. Most of us know this, but actually getting around to it seems such a hassle. How much consideration went in these “wills with a difference”?
Even the celebrated magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini, couldn’t trick death. Having died from a ruptured appendix, one of his biggest surprises came with the will reading. His magic equipment went to his former partner Theodore, who was in addition his brother. His mystical powers didn’t work on the next section – his appreciable collection of books on magic and the supernatural. 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 declined the conditions the collection was given to the Library of Congress.
The trained rabbits that he employed in his tricks vacated their hats and were divided around the kids of friends. Continuing the unusual style, his gave his wife 10 words, which formed a secret code, with the assurance that he would employ these words to contact her from the afterlife. Every year for ten years, following his death, she reliably held séances, but Harry never made contact.
Rock and blues singer Janis Joplin had a brief but interesting history. She sung several rock classics and four albums, including “To Love Somebody” and “Me and Bobby McGee”. After years of substance abuse, she died from an overdose, aged twenty seven. Two days prior to her death in 1970 her online wills the figure of $2,500 to fund an all night wake at her favourite bar so that her mates could “get blasted after I’m gone.” It must have been some celebration – that was a large amount of cash back in 1970.
We’ve all read about people that, randomly, leave all their estate to the cats’ home, much to the anger of their family. Many family feuds begin 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 little that can be done to object to such a decision.
Quirks aside, if you pass on without leaving a will, the people who you would wish to inherit wont necessarily 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, in spite of your aims and assurances. This can be sad when it’s not clearly stated and can result in devastating fiscal consequences.
The current way to get your will started is to go online and locate a wills online . However simple your intentions are, it’s best to have the professionals to make it for you and you can be sure that you’re leaving things exactly how you would want.