Kate Hackett
If you don’t have a will, here’s your reminder to go make one — especially a living will. You don’t want your family to have to make decisions about leaving you as a vegetable.
And while you’re in there with the lawyer divvying up your worldly goods, stop for a second and wonder: are any of my requests as crazy as the ones in this Reddit thread from u/sour_patch_kid__? The Redditor wanted to know, “Lawyers who put together wills, what is the craziest/oddest thing someone wanted to put in theirs?”
1. From an aircraft
A relative worked for a firm preparing wills and was confronted by an Executor who had an edict to “scatter the deceased’s ashes from a microlight aircraft”. He couldn’t fly one. She kindly pointed out to him that the drafting said nothing about whether said microlight was in flight at the time of scattering.
2. Fish
A lady wanted to create a trust fund of £100,000, for her pet fish. When I asked if it was a special kind of fish, she confirmed it was just a normal goldfish but she wanted it to be fed fresh avocado every day and be looked after by a local dog walker after she died. She was absolutely serious.
3. No disputes
Might be late to the party and not a lawyer, but my great-grandad had a clause in his will that stated something along the lines of, “if any of the beneficiaries decide to dispute the contents of the decedent’s estate, their share becomes $1 and nothing else.”
4. Grandpa, gross
I’m not a lawyer, but my grandfather saved his kidney stone so that he could leave it to my cousin. They never really got along.
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5. The shed
When my grandfather passed his will asked that I clean out his shed, and I alone. I found marijuana seeds, old reel style film pornography, which was hilarious and a bunch of other unsavory paraphernalia. 50’s flick knives too.
6. Kidnapping
I had a Russian client. Son of an oligarch. His father created a trust which provided dispositive provisions for if he was kidnapped and not found within a certain number of months. Freaked me out. I believe the will had similar language too, but I can’t remember now.
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7. Cats
My friends mother had in her will “that cat gets to live in my house alone until it expires” the cat lived there for a few years alone with a caregiver checking on it. Yes she was rich.
8. Secret kid
Another lady confessed she had a secret daughter, and she wanted to leave the daughter some money and photographs without the rest of her family finding out. Even her husband does not know. That will be a fun conversation when she passes away.
9. Murderer
I used to work at a bank in the estates department. I was an administrator who had to manage the files including encroachments upon the capital (i.e. “I want to take some money out now, please”). I had this one account – multi-million dollar trust for one single beneficiary – the son of the deceased. What’s interesting is that the son killed the parents… with a hammer in grotesque and brutal fashion. He plead insanity. He would call once a year from the penitentiary / mental hospital, requesting $50 for commissary (to buy chips and gum). The call was always strange. He was very polite.
10. Nothing for the kids
Just last week I handled a matter where the parents left millions in artwork to various people, wads of cash to various charities, and only left their kids the family cats. Turns out they did it because the kids got them the cats to comfort the parents in their old age and the parents fucking hated the cats but the kids wouldn’t let them get rid of the cats.
11. Yikes
Not a lawyer but my mom put in her will that if she dies under suspicious circumstances that my sister and I won’t be left anything. She watches a lot of true crime.
12. It went well
My aunt and uncle (both were more like parents and incredibly beautiful people) passed away within a few weeks of one another. When my uncle became ill, the aunt tried to work on a will with her long-term lawyer, but she was kinda just old and out of it. Her main concern the entire time was small knick-knacks like a jar of pennies she wanted a distant cousin to have or a used jacket from the 70s she bequeathed to a sister-in-law.
It was quite touching how much time she spent carefully considering each item and who would get it. Most of the items were used and didn’t even really hold any sentimental value, she just wanted them to go to good homes.
When she passed away, everyone knew exactly who was getting each odd item. The real kicker is when the lawyer told the primary beneficiaries that she never got around to the bigger assets and all that jazz. She basically told the lawyer, “Pay for our funeral and anything we owe and then family members x, y, and z can figure out the rest.” It ended up being millions in homes, lakefront property, jewelry, antique firearms, vehicles, life insurance policies, stocks, bonds, gold coins, etc. etc.
Luckily, the family is very close and everything went off without a hitch. They were amazing people who wanted to keep family items in the family, they just didn’t put that much weight on their incredible wealth. They also hid their wealth amazingly. We all knew that they were very comfortable, but no one had any idea they were deep into eight-figure assets. It was just funny to see a random niece get a set of plastic cups, worn dance shoes, and a check for $125,000.
13. Just bonkers
One super wealthy lady had a huge section for the care and well being of her pets, with primary and successor caretakers, a certain amount of money from the trust for care and feeding of each pet (one pet owner might receive 3k a month to take care of one of her pets after she passed), and certain stipulations on how they were to be cared for. While some might see it as excessive, the language and stipulations she had, and how they were referred to showed that she really, really loved her pets.
In that same will and trust, she also left a slew of people only one dollar, so that there would be no chance they could take the trust to probate court one the basis that they were merely forgotten. That part had SO MUCH SUBTLE SHADE. A lot of “they know what they did”, “they are well aware of their guilt in the matter”, etc. They she split up about 2 million dollars among 5 or 6 different animal rescues and animal welfare charities.
14. Strange
Not a Lawyer, but an aging woman my family knew left her house(large, and in a very affluent neighborhood) and estate to family friends for so long as her cats were alive and taken care of in said house. After they died, the house was to be sold and the remaining estate donated.
The weird thing is, it’s been like 20 years and the cats are still alive.
Also, they’ve changed color.
15. Outhouse
My great uncle’s official will gave the contents of his Outhouse to the City Council of a nearby town after they’d tried to take his land twice to build a new water treatment plant. He spent quite a few years fighting eminent domain claims and just wanted to give them something in return. As a joke his kids boxed up all the books and magazines in the out house and dropped them off at City Hall
16. Deeded
Not a will, but a deed. The City I work for was renovating a small park that was donated to the City in the 1910s. We went looking through the hand-written deed for easements or other restrictions and found that the family could claw the property back if the park were not, “perpetually provided with a fountain of pleasant running water fit for consumption by man and beast alike.” …the family still has descendants in town, so we installed a new water fountain with a dog bowl filler just to be safe.
17. Books
Here’s one from one of my dad’s law partners. He had a lady come in with an itemized list of books and wanted her will to contain all of the books and who will get what based on her choosing. So basically she decides who gets what specific book instead of letting her beneficiaries decide. The truly astonishing thing is how many books and how specific they get. According to dad’s law partner her list is at about 2,000 books to be divided among about 30 people. She is apparently very specific and comes back at least once a year to add all the new books she’s gotten.
18. This is so shitty
My sister’s mother in-law is leaving her house to her three sons. If one wants to sell out his third of the house, he has to sell it to the other two brothers for $1.
19. Furbies
A furby collection from models collected in the late 90’s. They were convinced they would retain future value.
20. Cab driver
One of our earlier clients passed recently. Turns out the man she left almost everything to, including the residue of her estate–which was considerable–was her regular taxi driver. She had also named him as her executor. He had no clue.
The woman named as her executor and main beneficiary on her previous two wills, a close friend of many years, was understandably flabbergasted and contested the will.
We responded to her solicitor’s Larke v Nugus request, informed Mr Taxi Driver (who didn’t even know our client had passed) and the will was upheld. Aforementioned friend was left a legacy of £5000 if I remember correctly, but her nose was clearly out of joint.
21. Misogyny
I had the first son so my dad decided to leave me more. Except he did the math wrong and it came out to 105%. He had dementia.
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22. Yikes
I’m the executor of my grandmother’s will. I also get the house and everything in it and a share of life insurance that’s split three ways between myself, sister, and mom. My mom has always said that all my dad , my grandmothers son-in-law, would like to have is some table. Well in the will there’s like a whole paragraph that states how my dad gets nothing, he doesn’t lay a finger on any thing in the house or any money. How my dad is basically worthless and deserves nothing and how he was a crap dad and that she begrudgingly has my mom in the will. Thanks grandma I’ll appreciate the awkwardness.
23. Divorce
So this is related. Worked on a divorce up a couple who fought over every single thing in the house. Separating pillows and such. They were left 52 gallons of vanilla extract by her grandmother. In a secondary preceding he was awarded all but 5 gallons. Two weeks later he sent in a case of “samples” in zip lock baggies to our office along with a request to subpoena a urine test from his ex-wife to prove she pissed in the jugs before he picked them up. We never needed to as she screamed in court that she, “pissed them full just like he pissed all over her during their marriage.” They were neat. This same couple went to court for nearly two years over a beanie baby collection. They had three kids.
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24. Cold
My vindictive grandmother left my aunt $20 as a reminder of the $20 my aunt stole from her once.
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25. The cats again
One client left $100,000.00 to his two cats so they could “maintain their current lifestyle.”
