When it comes to estate planning, nobody plans to die unexpectedly. That’s pretty much what makes it unexpected.
But dying without an up-to-date estate plan can leave behind more than grief. It can create confusion over property, disputes among family members, questions about who has authority to act, and sometimes a spectacular mess worthy of a Hollywood screenplay.
This next episode of Mortality Movies turns to estate planning, with films that illustrate what can happen when wills and other important documents are missing, outdated, surprising, or less official than everyone might wish.
Joining host Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death®, are Albuquerque-area experts Justin Welch with RBC Wealth Management and Brooke Nutting, Death Doula Professionals, who was a CPA before changing careers. This episode includes four movies that offer entertaining reminders to get your affairs in order while you’re still very much alive.
The Ghost Who Didn’t Plan to Become One
The romantic fantasy The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) provides an unexpectedly good lesson in estate planning.
Widow Lucy Muir rents a seaside cottage only to discover it is haunted by its former owner, the cantankerous Captain Daniel Gregg. The captain explains how he died suddenly and unintentionally.
And therein lies the problem.
When people say, “I don’t need a will yet,” what they often mean is, “I don’t expect to die yet.”
Captain Gregg didn’t either.
A will isn’t something people prepare because they expect to die soon. It’s something they prepare because they don’t know when they will die.
Without one, state law determines how property is distributed. The people and causes someone cared about may not receive what that person intended.
You don’t have to be old, sick, or haunted to have a will.
Second Marriage, First-Class Complications
Bonneville (2006) illustrates another common estate planning hazard: failing to update documents when life circumstances change.
Jessica Lange plays Arvilla, whose husband Joe has died. She soon receives an unpleasant surprise from Joe’s daughter, played by Christine Baranski.
Joe’s estate plan hasn’t necessarily kept pace with his life.
The situation becomes especially complicated because this was a second marriage. Arvilla believes she understands what Joe wanted. His daughter has a decidedly different interpretation, involving both her father’s property and his cremated remains.
Blended families make estate planning particularly important. A document created years earlier may no longer reflect new marriages, divorces, births, deaths, relationships, property, or priorities.
The lesson from Bonneville isn’t simply make an estate plan.
It’s keep your estate plan updated.
Major life events are good triggers for reviewing wills, trusts, beneficiary designations, powers of attorney and other documents. Even without a major change, periodically reviewing them can reveal instructions that no longer make sense.
After all, an estate plan can’t communicate your current wishes if it still reflects your previous life.
When the Will Reading Becomes a Contact Sport
Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) turns the reading of a will into wonderfully choreographed chaos.
A great fortune is at stake. There are unexpected changes involving beneficiaries. Family members have strong opinions about who deserves what.
And then comes the wonderfully ominous observation:
“When the destiny of a great fortune is at stake, men’s greed spreads like a poison in the bloodstream.”
Hollywood loves the dramatic reading of the will because it can instantly reveal secrets, produce surprise heirs and turn previously civil relatives into combatants.
Real estate administration usually isn’t quite so theatrical.
But the underlying conflict is very real.
Money and property can magnify existing family tensions. A surprise provision in an estate plan may leave survivors wondering why one person received more, another received less, or someone was omitted entirely.
That’s one reason estate planning isn’t only about signing documents. Thoughtful communication can also matter. While every family situation is different, explaining decisions in advance when appropriate may prevent bewilderment and resentment later.
You may not be leaving behind the Grand Budapest Hotel, or the painting, “Boy with Apple.”
Families have been known to fight just as passionately over items that are not worth the attorney fees.
Will That Handwritten Note Hold Up?
Grand Theft Parsons (2003) offers a stranger-than-fiction estate lesson because the movie is inspired by actual events following the 1973 death of musician Gram Parsons at age 26.
Parsons died from an overdose while staying near Joshua Tree National Park. What followed included the notorious theft of his body and an unauthorized attempt to cremate it in the desert.
Amid the film’s bizarre events is a more practical question: What counts as a valid will?
The story introduces the idea of a handwritten, or holographic, will. Requirements for such wills vary by state, which is an excellent reminder that writing down your wishes doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve created a legally valid estate-planning document.
The film also shows Parsons’ former girlfriend going to a bank and trying to access his money.
There’s another problem.
She doesn’t have a death certificate.
After a death, survivors may quickly discover just how many transactions require documentation and legal authority. Banks and other financial institutions don’t simply release assets because someone says, “He would have wanted me to have this.”
Those safeguards exist for good reason.
Don’t Make Your Estate Planning a Movie Plot
All four films point toward the same fundamental principle: estate planning is an act of communication.
A good plan answers questions before survivors are forced to answer them for you.
Who should receive your property? Who has authority to handle your affairs? Have relationships or circumstances changed since you signed your documents? Are your beneficiary designations current? Does anyone know where your important information is?
And perhaps most importantly: does your estate plan still say what you think it says?
You don’t need a great fortune, a haunted cottage, a blended family, or a rock-and-roll lifestyle to benefit from planning.
You just need to be mortal.
And so far, that’s all of us.
When was the last time you reviewed your estate planning documents? If the answer is “I can’t remember,” perhaps these movies are trying to tell you something.
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You can also discover a treasure trove of conversation-starting films and TV shows in Gail Rubin’s latest book, 98.6 Mortality Movies to See Before You Die.
