Your probate will   is drawn up to help your family organise the disposal of your estate when you’ve died. Whilst yours may be simple, here are one or two with some quirks to them.

Will’s With An Exceptional Twist
It is sensible to make a will. Most of us realize that, but actually doing it seems such a bother.  How much thought went in these “wills with a difference”?

Even the famous magician and escapologist, Harry Houdini, couldn’t trick death. Having died from a ruptured appendix, one of his biggest surprises came with the will reading. His magic equipment went to his former partner Theodore, who was in addition his brother. His conjuring skills didn’t work on the next items – his appreciable array of tomes on magic and the occult. He left these to the American Society for Psychical Research, but with the term that their research officer J Malcolm Bird, who additionally was the editor of their journal, stood down. They refused the conditions the collection passed to the Library of Congress.

The stage rabbits that he employed in his act left their hats and were given to the children of friends. Continuing the wierd style, his left his wife 10 words, which formed a secret code, with the assurance that he would use these words to contact her from the afterlife. Each year for ten years, following his death, she reliably held séances, but Houdini never made contact.

Kozmic Blues and rock singer Janis Lyn Joplin had a short but notable history. 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 twenty seven. Two days prior to her demise in 1970 her  online wills      the sum of $2,500 to fund an all night wake at her favourite bar so that her friends could “get blasted after I’m gone.” It must have been some celebration – that was a large amount of money back in 1970.

We’ve all read about people that, randomly, give all their money to the cats’ home, much to the dismay of their relatives. Lot’s of family rows begin when a will is read. As long as the person who made the will is of sound mind and not under duress, there is often nothing that can be done to object to such a decision.

Quirks aside, if you pass on without writing a will, those who you would want to inherit will not necessarily be the ones that do so. You might have a partner of several years, but if you’re not married or in a legal partnership, he or she won’t get your money, heedless of your aims and affirmations. This can be sad when it’s not clearly understood and can cause awkward financial consequences.

The modern method to get your will under way is to go online and locate a cheaper wills      . However basic your wishes are, it’s best to have the professionals to write it for you and you can be confident that you’re leaving your estate exactly how you would wish them to be.

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