(612) 206-3701 info@lucerelegal.com

5 Estate Planning Lessons from Fast & Furious’ Paul Walker’s Estate

Lucere Legal helps families make estate plans that work
Categories: Estate Planning

Paul Walker, who starred in the Fast & Furious movie franchise, died tragically at the age of 40 last November in a high speed car accident in Los Angeles.  A probate case was opened at the end of January in California, revealing that he left assets of approximately $25 million.  His survivors include his 15-year-old daughter Meadow and his parents.

A recent Forbes.com article revealed five estate planning lessons that can be learned from Paul Walker’s Estate:

Put your assets in a trust.   Paul Walker’s will is before the court and available for public scrutiny because his assets weren’t transferred into the trust he had created. He had a pour-over will that left his assets in a revocable living trust, which is a good fail-safe just in case something inadvertently gets left out of the trust, but if his assets had been handled properly during his life the trust would have made everything totally private and kept it all out of court (and the media).  Unfortunately, while Paul Walker had a trust, it wasn’t properly funded … and this is why the details of his estate are exposed to the public. Not transferring assets into the trust is a very common estate planning failure, even when working with a lawyer.

Most lawyers simply do not handle transferring assets into the trust, the single most important part of estate planning, instead leaving it to clients to follow through on.

Fully fund your trust.  The intent to avoid the costly and public probate is thwarted when even one asset is left outside of the trust. To be effective, a trust must be fully funded. Sadly, this happens all the time – most estate plans will not work as intended because trusts are left unfunded or only partially funded.

When you do estate planning (or if you already have), the most important thing you can do is ensure your assets are transferred properly.

Name guardians for minor children.  Walker’s daughter, Meadow, is still a minor and he did name his own mother as the guardian for her in his will.  Meadow’s mother is still living, so the grandmother will likely not assume guardianship unless Meadow’s mother is found to be unfit.

Don’t wait to do estate planning.  Walker executed his plan in 2001, when he was 28 and the first Fast & Furious movie had debuted.  While we don’t know what prompted him to do  estate planning, he did the right thing by planning early, and not waiting until “someday”, especially considering his untimely death.

Keep estate plans updated.  Not only were Walker’s assets not titled properly to have his plan work as intended, but his estate plan was never updated from the original version created twelve years before he died.

Walker’s net worth changed significantly in those twelve years, and so did his estate tax liability. With an estate of $25,000,000, his family will pay over $5,000,000 in estate taxes.  This could have been avoided with proper planning and it could have been structured to all pass on to his family instead of the Government.

If you would prefer that your family receives what you are passing on without the public spectacle of probate and without a portion ending up in the hands of the Government, you must update your estate plan at least every three years and review your assets and important changes every year.

To learn more about putting the right legal and financial protections in place for your family, contact our office at (612) 206-3701 or fill out our contact form to schedule a time for us to sit down and talk.

Photo © Andre Luis / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 / GFDL

Contact us to see how we can help you with Estate Planning

You may also like . . .

The Risks of Poor Man’s Estate Planning: 10 Common Mistakes

With my years of experience as an attorney, I have seen plenty of families left to sort things out for themselves because their parents either failed to plan their estate or turned to the siren song of the new, “do-it-yourself” estate planning websites in a misguided...

It’s Time You Got an Agent

You need an agent. No matter the nature of your unique talent and whether or not you have a particularly telegenic personality, your agent will be there to protect your interests and desires even after you’ve passed. What, did you think I meant the Hollywood type?...

The Tragic Family Fight Over the Property of Funnyman Robin Williams

The passing of beloved comedian Robin Williams shocked the world, but the latest tragedy that has followed in its wake was all too predictable. Mr. Williams left behind three children from two different marriages, Zak, Zelda, and Cody, from his first two marriages and...

The plain-English guide for Minnesota small business owners

When it comes to business, ignorance isn't bliss; ignorance is risk.

There's a handful of legal topics that business owners should be familiar with, at least on a rudimentary level, to reduce the risk of having something horrible come out of left field.

This book is a legal guide to help you put the most common business legal issues on your radar, with enough information for you to be on the alert for when you may need to get some professional advice.

The intention in arming you with this information is so that you can proceed in business confidently and with fewer legal quagmires.

Do you have a cabin?

The first generation that buys a cabin enjoys it to the fullest and it’s a magical place where happy memories are made and families go for some much needed respite. Unfortunately, without thoughtful planning, the chances of the cabin staying a place of happiness and tranquility into successive generations is very, very slim.

If you haven’t done the planning in advance and made it legally binding, the family members (and their ex-spouses and new spouses) will have to work every detail out for themselves. If they can’t, what is likely to happen is a lawsuit called an action for partition that forces everyone to sell their interest. This lawsuit is expensive, and the costs of litigation will come out of the proceeds of the sale of the cabin, so to add insult to injury to those who wanted to keep the cabin but couldn’t afford to buy the others out, they are footing part of the legal bills in the lawsuit against them. Ouch!

It’s no wonder that family members stop speaking for years after the cabin conflict is “resolved.” You can’t make family relationships perfect, but you can take away much of the fuel for the family conflict fire. That’s what cabin planning does, and it has the nice side effect of giving you peace of mind now.

That’s why Kimberly wrote The Minnesota Cabin Planning Guide and Workbook, and you can get a free electronic copy of her book on our cabin planning website, or you can find it in many county libraries in Minnesota, or you can get it on amazon.com.

Make An Appointment>

Join Our Mailing List

Subscribe to our newsletter list to get information and resources helpful to running your business and planning and managing your personal financial affairs delivered right to your inbox.

We don’t spam and won’t share your information with anyone, at anytime, ever.

Check out our podcast

The Small Business Buzz Podcast