Your cheap will is designed to help your family orchestrate the disposal of your estate when you’ve moved on. Whilst yours may be simple, here are one or two with some quirks to them.
Will’s The Last Laugh
It makes sense to make a will. Most of us realize this, but actually getting around to it seems such a inconvenience. How much consideration went in these “wills with a difference”?
Even the celebrated conjurer and escape artist, Harry Houdini, couldn’t trick death. Having perished from a burst appendix, one of his greatest shocks came with the reading of his will. His magic equipment went to his former partner Theodore, who was also his brother. His conjuring powers didn’t work on the next items – his bountiful collection of tomes on magic and the supernatural. He left these to the American Society for Psychical Research, but only on 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 passed to the Library of Congress.
The trained rabbits that he employed in his performance vacated their hats and were given to the children of friends. Continuing the wierd theme, his left his spouse ten words, which formed a secret code, with the promise that he would employ these words to contact her from the afterlife. Every year for 10 years, following his death, she reliably held séances, but Harry never made contact.
Kozmic Blues and rock singer Janis Lyn Joplin had a brief but memorable career. She recorded several rock classics and four albums, including “To Love Somebody” and “Me and Bobby McGee”. After years of drugs and drink, she died from an overdose, aged 27. Two days prior to her demise in 1970 her will the figure of 2,500 dollars to fund an all night wake at her favourite pub so that her friends could “get blasted after I’m gone.” It must have been some wake – that was an appreciable amount of cash back in 1970.
We’ve all heard of people that, unexpectedly, leave all their money to the dogs’ home, much to the dismay of their family. Many family rows start when a will is read. As long as there is no reason to doubt the sanity and liberty of the person when the will is made, there is often nothing that can be done to contest such a decision.
Eccentricities aside, if you die without writing a will, the people who you would wish to inherit wont always be the ones that do so. You could 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, heedless of your designs and assurances. This can be upsetting when it’s not clearly stated and can result in awkward financial consequences.
The up to date method to get your will under way is to search online and find a wills online . However basic your intentions are, it’s advisable to have the professionals to write it for you and you can be assured that you’re leaving your affairs exactly how you would wish them to be.