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Bunny Bonanza, Houdinis Will Extravaganza
December 18, 2009
Your online will is written to help your family organise the disposal of your estate when you’ve gone. Whilst yours may be simple, here are one or two memorable ones.
Bunny Bonanza, Houdini’s Will Extravaganza
It is practical to make a will. Most of us understand this, but actually getting around to it seems such a bother. How much consideration went in these “wills with a difference”?
Even the celebrated magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini, couldn’t escape death. Having died from a ruptured appendix, one of his greatest shocks came with the reading of his will. His magic supplys went to his former partner Theodore, who was in addition his brother. His magical powers failed on the next item – his considerable collection of writings on magic and the supernatural. He left these to the American Society for Psychical Research, but with the requirement that the research officer J Malcolm Bird, who additionally was the editor of their journal, stood down. They rejected the conditions the collection was given to the Library of Congress.
The performing rabbits that he employed in his performance vacated their hats and were distributed amongst the kids of friends. Continuing the odd theme, his gave his spouse 10 words, which were a secret code, with the avowal that he would employ these words to contact her from the afterlife. Every year for 10 years, following his death, she dutifully held séances, but Harry never made contact.
Kozmic Blues and rock singer Janis Joplin had a short but memorable career. She recorded several rock classics and four albums, including “To Love Somebody” and “Me and Bobby McGee”. After years of drug addiction, she passed away from an overdose, aged 27. Two days prior to her demise in 1970 her online wills the figure of $2,500 to sponsor an all night party at her favourite pub so that her mates could “get blasted after I’m gone.” It must have been some wake – that was a large amount of money back in 1970.
We’ve all read about people that, randomly, give all their estate to the cats’ home, much to the disbelief of their family. Lot’s of family rows begin when a will is read. As long as there is no reason to doubt the sanity and liberty of the person when the will is made, there is often little that can be done to contest such a decision.
Quirks apart, if you pass on without leaving a will, those whom you would want to inherit will not necessarily be the ones that do so. You could have a partner of several years, but if you’re not married or in a legal partnership, he or she won’t receive your estate, regardless of your intentions and affirmations. This can be sad when it’s not clearly understood and can cause devastating financial results.
The up to date way to get your will under way is to go online and locate a free wills . However simple your aims are, it’s best to have the professionals to make it for you and you can be sure that you’re leaving your affairs exactly how you would wish them to be.
