How Important is Estate Planning?

By: Jeff M. Burns, Attorney at Law.  Macomb County, Michigan.

To easily understand the importance of estate planning, search the Web for “the Estate of Spicer H. Breeden.” The case depicts a tragic story that ended with the heartbreaking and untimely death of a beloved reporter from Denver and the suicide of a wealthy Denver socialite.  Spicer Breeden was the great-grandson of Charles Boettcher. Mr. Boettcher was a tremendously successful Denver entrepreneur.  At age 95, he told Time magazine: ”I like to work. I’ve worked hard all my life, and I suppose I’ll keep working as long as I can raise a hand.”

His great-grandson, on the other hand, never had a job in his life and inherited Two Million Dollars when he was thirteen years old from his mother who passed from cancer. The money came from the Boettcher fortune. According to accounts from friends and family, he led a rock star life consumed by cocaine, alcohol, fast cars and women.  The circumstances surrounding both deaths and the handwritten will Spicer left prior to taking his own life created a blizzard of interesting litigation for years to come.

However, the estate planning lesson is this: Spicer should have never inherited Two Million Dollars at age 13! With proper estate planning the inheritance could have been held in trust by a responsible trustee. The trustee could have held the principal and income of the trust and provided distributions to Spicer in a responsible fashion over a number of years. With unfettered access to wealth at a young age, the young man appears to have led a reckless and irresponsible life. With a simple Revocable Family Trust, Spicer possibly could have absorbed a trace of his great grandfather’s work ethic.