If you create a will or a trust, you can make any kind of gift you want to whomever you want. You can also make stipulations that a certain event must occur for the beneficiary to receive the inheritance. Some people, for example, provide for distributions to children or grandchildren if they graduate from college or they stay off drugs.
Some more outrageous bequests or conditions have been:
A Finnish business man left 780 shares of a rubber boot company to the residents of a nursing home in Finland. That company later became Nokia, which makes cell phones, making all the nursing home residents millionaires.
George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright, left his fortune to the person who could create a new English alphabet. The money was ultimately shared between 5 people who created phonetic alphabets.
You’ve probably heard of Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean, who left $12 million in trust for her dog excluding two of her grandchildren.
Comic book writer Mark Gruenwald provided in his will that his cremated ashes be mixed with ink and used in a comic book.
In 1862 Henry Budd bequeathed money to his two sons on condition they never grow mustaches. (How would that be enforced?)
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s ashes were flown into space and shot out as the satellite orbited the earth.
But strangest of all – Juan Potomachi left over $50,000 to the Teatro Dramatico in Buenos Aires, on the condition that his skull be preserved and used in the production of Hamlet.
We can help you with whatever bequests you want in your will or trust although carrying out similar ones to those here might be difficult. Call us or e mail us at Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation if you need a will or a trust drafted or updated.