Gene Hackman, wife and dog found dead

[Disneylover99]

I hope Gene’s kids get his inheritance.

 

[Moliphino]

It is likely to set off a battle royale over the estate. I find it very curious that there are now new reports suggesting his wife may have been the survivor by about 24 hours. That pronouncement being made official could cut off the ability of his children to inherit under operation of law, if it stands.

She still died days before him, just one day later than they originally thought.

 

[tvguy]

I hope Gene’s kids get his inheritance.

They may. Apparently Hackman's will did NOT leave his estate to his wife, but to his trust. The assumption of many is that his wife was the beneficiary of the trust, and that may be true. But the trust should have alternate beneficiaries. Who those alternates are is unknown as the details of the trust have not been made public and this is no legal requirement that they ever be made public.

 

[cabanafrau]

She still died days before him, just one day later than they originally thought.

I've seen reports suggesting that she survived him by one day. In addition to the estate questions, that prospect adds more confusion to the situation if true. The only way I can conceive that is possible is if she was ill, he passed and she was so ill she was incapacitated.

 

[tvguy]

I've seen reports suggesting that she survived him by one day. In addition to the estate questions, that prospect adds more confusion to the situation if true. The only way I can conceive that is possible is if she was ill, he passed and she was so ill she was incapacitated.

Any links to those reports? Everything today is saying she lived one day longer than first thought based on phone calls she made, but still died a week before Hackman

 

[cabanafrau]

Any links to those reports? Everything today is saying she lived one day longer than first thought based on phone calls she made, but still died a week before Hackman

I haven't seen any reports at all about the case today. What I read was either yesterday or the day before.

 

[tvguy]

I haven't seen any reports at all about the case today. What I read was either yesterday or the day before.

The will was written 20 years ago, so hard to argue Hackman was not of sound mind to challenge it. And we will likely never know how the trust was set up. His kids may end up getting the money. Two of his three kids are senior citizens! Something that happens when you live into your 90's. Thankfully they are still all alive, as that could complicate things even more.
My mom was in a care home at age 90, and one of the ladies was 98. Both her children had passed away from old age. She was the last one left in her family. So sad.

 

[cabanafrau]

The will was written 20 years ago, so hard to argue Hackman was not of sound mind to challenge it. And we will likely never know how the trust was set up. His kids may end up getting the money. Two of his three kids are senior citizens! Something that happens when you live into your 90's. Thankfully they are still all alive, as that could complicate things even more.
My mom was in a care home at age 90, and one of the ladies was 98. Both her children had passed away from old age. She was the last one left in her family. So sad.

I didn't say anything about challenging the will on the basis of him not having testamentary capacity? I hadn't heard he had a trust, just saw it mentioned in this thread as a possibility. Even if he did that doesn't necessarily carry the day.

Interestingly enough a lot of people wo create trusts during estate planning don't follow through to actually fund the trust, which is necessary. Sometimes that's handled by what's called a pour over will, wherein assets that become part of the estate upon death are then automatically deeded to the trust via instructions in the will. It's not all that unusual for the trust to be unfunded, the will silent regarding deeding assets to the trust upon death and the estate being distributed via terms of the will that may not have been envisioned to control and distribute all assets. Or if the trust was simply left unfunded prior to death and there is no accompanying will, the estate is distributed according to operation of law (distributed to next of kin as recognized by law.)

A few years ago my mother actually was contacted by a law firm in a case like this. She inherited a few hundred dollars from the estate of a very distant cousin of her mothers she had never even met who had lived across the country. It wasn't until my mom received the questionnaire seeking family info. that my mom understood who this relative actually was according to other family names listed. Apparently she had married an incredibly wealthy man and they had no children. She had lived several decades after he passed and had no immediate relatives left. She left no estate planning whatsoever so the law firm that had been representing her and her husband long before he passed ended up being appointed to locate her heirs under operation of law. Her first cousins, my grandmother's generation, had all passed, so that meant they had to make extensive efforts to locate the next generation of cousins who were now deemed closest heirs in the stead of their parents. Several of the first cousins had seven to nine children each so in the end the very significant assets wound up largely eaten up by costs and then distributed to many, many heirs, resulting in very little of the $$ actually being available to distribute to "heirs". Apparently investigation and settlement of the estate took well over two years.

 

[Pink Partridge]

And he was worth $80M....

I imagine they got the hint that their father didn't think very much of them if he excluded them from the will years ago.

$80M and your father doesn't leave you a dime? That is hurtful. They most likely gave their dad the childfree life he desired, hence the reason he wasn't found for so long.

 

[tvguy]

I imagine they got the hint that their father didn't think very much of them if he excluded them from the will years ago.

$80M and your father doesn't leave you a dime? That is hurtful. They most likely gave their dad the childfree life he desired, hence the reason he wasn't found for so long.

That is assuming they knew the contents of the will.

 

[tvguy]

I didn't say anything about challenging the will on the basis of him not having testamentary capacity? I hadn't heard he had a trust, just saw it mentioned in this thread as a possibility. Even if he did that doesn't necessarily carry the day.

Interestingly enough a lot of people wo create trusts during estate planning don't follow through to actually fund the trust, which is necessary. Sometimes that's handled by what's called a pour over will, wherein assets that become part of the estate upon death are then automatically deeded to the trust via instructions in the will. It's not all that unusual for the trust to be unfunded, the will silent regarding deeding assets to the trust upon death and the estate being distributed via terms of the will that may not have been envisioned to control and distribute all assets. Or if the trust was simply left unfunded prior to death and there is no accompanying will, the estate is distributed according to operation of law (distributed to next of kin as recognized by law.)

A few years ago my mother actually was contacted by a law firm in a case like this. She inherited a few hundred dollars from the estate of a very distant cousin of her mothers she had never even met who had lived across the country. It wasn't until my mom received the questionnaire seeking family info. that my mom understood who this relative actually was according to other family names listed. Apparently she had married an incredibly wealthy man and they had no children. She had lived several decades after he passed and had no immediate relatives left. She left no estate planning whatsoever so the law firm that had been representing her and her husband long before he passed ended up being appointed to locate her heirs under operation of law. Her first cousins, my grandmother's generation, had all passed, so that meant they had to make extensive efforts to locate the next generation of cousins who were now deemed closest heirs in the stead of their parents. Several of the first cousins had seven to nine children each so in the end the very significant assets wound up largely eaten up by costs and then distributed to many, many heirs, resulting in very little of the $$ actually being available to distribute to "heirs". Apparently investigation and settlement of the estate took well over two years.

No you didn't mention the age of the will, but it has been widely reported that the fact the will was last updated in 2005 that Hackman's recent mental state was less likely to a viable argument to void the will.
The trust also has been widely reported. https://people.com/who-inherits-gene-hackman-estate-legal-expert-exclusive-11698283

Only thing we have in a trust is our house. The vast majority of our savings are in IRAS which have their own structure regarding where the money goes when you die. So when both of us are gone, our kids will have to decide amongst themselves over what to do with our personal property in the house and the cars, and what little non IRA cash we have. Our wills say they are to split it. The trust says the same about the house. The IRAs say the same.

 

[citruscurtis]

Wow ABC dedicated an hour... didn't watch... though curious of programs intent

 

[Silvermist999]

Did the wife’s will leave anything to her own family? I thought I read somewhere her own mother had dementia. To not leave anything to her own family seems so strange. Found the article. https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrit...reportedly-hadnt-called-mother-since-october/

 

[barkley]

Interestingly enough a lot of people wo create trusts during estate planning don't follow through to actually fund the trust, which is necessary.

I was the successor trustee on my mom's estate and this was the case. she had set everything up 25 or so years prior to her death but she was one to always be chasing the best rates on cd's and not prone to carrying with her the trust documents to make sure her accounts were set up properly. yes, she had a pour over will but when she would set up her cd's she would set them up with p.o.d.'s so when she passed pretty much everything with the exception of a small checking account was excluded from the trust.

 

[AnnaS]

Wow ABC dedicated an hour... didn't watch... though curious of programs intent

I did tape it. Hopefully will watch it today or the next day or so. Curious if there is anything new though...if the show is not live (maybe it was?), we get daily updates on the news. Curious if there is any new information that we have not heard about.

Besides being sad, find it interesting and wonder if anyone will ever know what actually happened.

I think I heard she left her assets to a charity.