Jun
4
2009
From Riches to Rags…
Author: Byron UdellI read an article in an industry magazine called Insurancenewsnet. It talks about lessons learned from famous estate planning failures. There were some interesting cases that they made about famous people that didn’t have the right estate planning needs before they died. A common theme that was missing in each of their estate plans was a life insurance policy.
Here’s an example:
Name: Sammy Davis Jr.
Died: May 16, 1990, Beverly Hills
Estate Mistake: Although he made more than $50 million in his lifetime, Sammy left $5 million. The bigger problem was he owed $7 million in taxes and no means such as life insurance to satisfy his debt. His widow sold many of his personal belongings at action to help pay the debt.
June 5th, 2009 at 10:40 am
This leads me to a couple of conclusions… firstly and most obviously, life insurance is a must. Secondly, it isn’t all about how much you make – it’s how much you spend vs. how much you invest and save! For an icon like Sammy Davis, Junior, to have made $50 million and only have $5 million at the end is really sad.
Jerry