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Stuart Scott f'd up his estate

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by poindexter, Dec 4, 2019.

  1. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    Seen this happen so many times.
    Folks, if you have any type of money or estate, have an ironclad trust. If the beneficiaries are under 18, have someone you can trust with your life to handle the estate.

    Booya, cancer, great guy, all that stuff.

    He didn't take care of the small stuff. His two daughters are going to get boned. That is sad.

    Late ESPN Host Stuart Scott's Family Running Out Of His Money Due To Nasty Legal Battle
     
  2. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    It sounds like he made two significant errors. He did not account for all of his debts and he did not choose his trustees wisely. I don't care how well the trust or will or anything else is put together. If you don't the right person in charge of executing it, the entire process can and will go sideways.
     
  3. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    By debts, it looks like $162k owed to his ex wife as part of his divorce. Jeez, that was 8 years before he died.
    Come on, man. Splitting up your 401k is Divorce 101. It takes about 20 minutes of paperwork.
     
  4. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    Sad.
     
  5. swingline

    swingline Well-Known Member

    I used to write estate planning articles for a law firm, and you wouldn’t believe how common this is. Prince, Gandolfini and many others fucked up their estates, paying too much in taxes or shorting their heirs or both.
     
  6. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Cancer sucks obviously, but if there is one thing it offers is an alert to make sure your affairs are in order if the worst happens.
     
  7. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Cancer sucks obviously, but if there is one thing it offers is an alert to make sure your affairs are in order if the worst happens.
     
  8. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Yeah. Prince was at least superficially in decent looking health. Gandolfini was the huge bull-strong fat guy who never had a heart attack, until he had a heart attack.
    But when you get cancer, it's time to talk to estate planners.
     
  9. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    My sister is an elder law attorney and estate planner, and she says once your estate grows beyond whatever money you have in a bank account (and maybe a fully paid-off house), essentially any plan is better than no plan.
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2019
  10. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    That story didn't match the headline. It says that his ex wife was suing Disney because it paid $162K from his 401(K) to the trust he had set up rather than paying it to her. He had been ordered to pay that $162K to his ex in his divorce and by the time he died 8 years later, he had never done it. And that is why she is suing. But how that added up to his family running out of money wasn't really explained, and the story barely mentions his actual family (two daughters) or the bulk of his assets beside that 401(K) payout that was supposed to go to his ex wife.

    It took a trip to the googles to find a bit more, and apparently Scott had set up a family trust. ... and his daughters are suing the trustees, one of which is Scott's sister, over their handling of the trust.

    The whole thing doesn't really add up, but there is no way to know for sure what is really going on, unless there is info about how he actually set up his trust. Typically, someone who wants to take care of their kids would put in specific directives about how the trustees are to distribute their assets, including specifically how the kids are to be taken care of. It would say how much each kid gets and when they get it. A story I just read said the daughters had trouble getting money for college from the trustees. A typical trust fund would have that all spelled out.

    So it seems kind of odd. He's a guy who apparently planned ahead enough to have set up a trust that covered his family. But if the claims in his daughter's lawsuit are true, he either did such a crummy job of structuring the trust that his daughters aren't actually taken care of, or the trustees are ignoring his directives. It doesn't entirely add up.
     
  11. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    On the plus side - I'm sure that 401K has blown up in the meantime thanks to Trump. (crossthread);)
     
  12. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Wouldn't do his ex wife any good. I suspect she gets $162K+ plus interest, no matter how much it has grown in the interum. That is what the court ordered. Although that could be an interesting lawsuit now, if she claims that since she wasn't paid what she was owed, she's entitled to portion of any appreciation over the last 12 years. I don't know the law well enough to know if that would fly. I strongly suspect not, but it's the kind of thing I could see someone trying.

    She has the misfortune of being up against Disney's lawyers on this, although that is her doing. It read like she sued Disney and Fidelity saying that money was owed to her as part of her divorce in 2007. Disney had paid it to the trust. Disney turned around and countersued, saying that at the time of his death the beneficiary on his retirement account was the trust, so they did nothing wrong. Honestly -- and again I don't know the law, just going by my sense -- it read to me like she should be suing the trust, not Disney and Fidelity. They are bound by the beneficiaries he names on his accounts. If the ex wife has a claim to that money shouldn't she be chasing it at where the money is actually at now?
     
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