Few celebrity deaths have felt more gut-wrenching than the sudden death of Robin Williams in August 2014. In the wake of his death, fans were left reminiscing about his most iconic roles, but his family was left in a heated legal dispute over the distribution of his sizable estate.
Robin Williams had three children prior to his marriage to Susan Schneider in 2011. In 2012, after his marriage to Susan, Robin updated his estate plan. The estate plan established a trust for Susan’s lifetime benefit and directed that such trust be funded with their primary residence in Tiburon, California, as well as the contents of such residence. The estate plan also directs that the trust for Susan retain an “appropriate reserve fund” to cover the expenses related to the Tiburon home for the rest of Susan’s lifetime. A second home owned by Robin in Napa, California, as well as its contents, was left to his children.
The estate plan also directed the distribution of the substantial personal property that Robin had accumulated over his lifetime. Not only did he amass countless professional awards and accomplishments, but he was also an avid collector who owned extensive jewelry, collectibles, and memorabilia. The estate plan specifically left his “clothing, jewelry, [and] personal photos taken prior to his marriage to [Susan]” to his children. However, as stated above, the contents of the Tiburon home were to be held in the trust for Susan and the contents of the Napa home were to go to his children.
Robin Williams seemingly did everything right to get his estate plan in order. Unfortunately, the language in his estate planning documents was not specific enough to prevent a dispute arising after his death about his intentions. Susan filed with the court asking for instruction due to disagreements among the parties as to, among other things, whether watches were considered “jewelry”, what constituted the contents of the Tiburon home, and how much should be set aside in the reserve fund to cover the Tiburon house expenses. Location also mattered— clothing was specifically left to the children, but what about the clothing contained in the Tiburon home, which was generally left in trust for Susan? Ultimately, the parties reached a settlement over a year after Robin’s passing, but the full details of the settlement were not released to the public.
Although we non-celebrities may not have family members fighting over who gets to keep our Academy Award, we have all heard the stories or personally experienced the family disputes over personal property that arise after a loved one has passed away. Further, providing for a blended family is incredibly common, but these issues in Robin’s case highlight how we must be mindful of the assets we are leaving to specific people and whether we are setting those beneficiaries up in a way that will allow them to financially handle such assets. In this case, Susan was concerned that she would not have sufficient assets to upkeep the Tiburon home if her trust would not fund such expenses. The more thought that you put into these types of bequests during the estate planning process, the more your estate plan can be tailored to take those considerations into account and, ultimately, the more likely your specific intentions can be honored after your passing.
If you would like to discuss establishing an estate plan for the first time or updating an existing plan, please call our office at 856-489-8388 or contact us here to schedule an appointment.
