Estate Planning

Foolish Friday

By Hull and Hull LLP

Earlier this week, I came across a funny web page by Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe. In 'Wills, Clauses & Other 'Narishkayt', Ms. Wolfe sets out particulars of certain will clauses of note. ('Narishkayt', she explains, is the Yiddish word for 'foolishness'.)

Ms. Wolfe tells of Mark Gruenwald, a Marvel Comics writer, who in his will directed that his ashes be mixed with ink and used within the pages of a comic book. 4,000 'ink and ashes' issues of Squadron Supreme were produced after his death.

She tells of Portuguese aristocrat Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral da Camara, who picked 70 random strangers from a Lisbon telephone book as his beneficiaries.

She tells of Onni Nurmi, a Finish businessman who left 780 shares of a rubber boot company to residents of a Finish nursing home. The company went on to become Nokia, and the residents became millionaires. (Another report, here, says that the bequest wasn't to the residents, but to the town of Pukkila for the 'recreation of the people living in the village's old people's home'. At one point, the shares were said to be worth $90m.)

In my personal favourite, she tells of Anthony Scott, who wrote in his will: 'To my first wife, Sue, whom I always promised to mention in my will. Hello Sue!'

Ms. Wolfe concludes by reciting the saying: 'The person who works and saves will someday have enough wealth to divide with those who don't.'

Visit her web page to see the entire article, and browse other articles by her.

Have a great weekend.

Paul Trudelle

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on August 06, 2010 (boomark / email).