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Your last will and testament is one of those things you probably don’t want to think about while having a walk in the park. It's also one of those things you’ll be so glad you did.

Apparently, making it loud and clear what happens to your property when you die, whom your belongings go to and who’s gonna be in charge of making things happen after you’re no longer here makes everything so much easier for your closest ones. And although we’d much rather never think about death altogether, reality makes us do so.

So in order to see just how complex, interesting, and sometimes pretty weird last wills can be, we take a look at this Ask Reddit thread. “Lawyers who put together wills, what is the craziest/oddest thing someone wanted to put in theirs?” someone asked and received more than 8k comments. Below we selected the most entertaining stories, so pull your seat a little closer!

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#1

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Not a Lawyer, but an aging woman my family knew left her house(large, and in a very affluent neighborhood) and estate to family friends for so long as her cats were alive and taken care of in said house. After they died, the house was to be sold and the remaining estate donated.

The weird thing is, it's been like 20 years and the cats are still alive.

Also, they've changed color.

EndlessArgument , Dietmar Ludmann Report

Final score:
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#2

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My great aunt who had no children put in her will that after a certain percent of her money was distributed evenly amongst her nieces and nephews, the remaining money would go to my dad provided he use it to throw a big family reunion party. Even after her death she brought the family together, it was a great party in her honor!

ricks35 , Kelsey Chance Report

Final score:
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#3

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made When my grandfather passed his will asked that I clean out his shed, and I alone.

I found marijuana seeds, old reel style film pornography, which was hilarious and a bunch of other unsavory paraphernalia. 50's flick knives too.

Navaro27 , Sebastian Huxley Report

Final score:
216points
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#4

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Not a lawyer, but I work at a law firm. One client left $100,000.00 to his two cats so they could "maintain their current lifestyle".

NerdSandwich , Ayelt van Veen Report

Final score:
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#5

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Not a lawyer but my mom put in her will that if she dies under suspicious circumstances that my sister and I won’t be left anything. She watches a lot of true crime.

staying_incognito87 , Rob Allen Report

Final score:
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#6

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Might be late to the party and not a lawyer, but my great-grandad had a clause in his will that stated something along the lines of, “if any of the beneficiaries decide to dispute the contents of the decedent’s estate, their share becomes $1 and nothing else.”

Seemed like a pretty good way to maintain harmony among his survivors.

nelson227 , Ryan Quintal Report

Final score:
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#7

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Lawyer here.

Wrote in my own will that I wish to be cremated and my funeral shall take place 3 miles off shore. My ashes are to be placed in a small wooden boat. Members of my funeral party will then compete for a $10,000 prize from my estate by shooting flaming arrows at my remains. Crossbows are prohibited.

dawglaw09 , Ellena McGuinness Report

Final score:
193points
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#8

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made I (early 20s) was forced to write a will due to the health insurance i get at work, and, amongst sensible stuff, the in-house lawyer said it was totally okay for this clause to be added:

"My funeral wishes are that i be buried in a coffin which has been springloaded, such that opening the coffin would cause alarm to future archeologists"

Then a bunch of stuff about if this is to costly i'd be cremated and have my ashes scattered in a specific place.

WanderCold , Eugene Peretz Report

Final score:
185points
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#9

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Just last week I handled a matter where the parents left millions in artwork to various people, wads of cash to various charities, and only left their kids the family cats. Turns out they did it because the kids got them the cats to comfort the parents in their old age and the parents f*****g hated the cats but the kids wouldn’t let them get rid of the cats.

Dr_BrOneil , Kelly Report

Final score:
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#10

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My own grandmother specified which of the children and grandchildren should get which of the family recipes, and somehow felt the need to include commentary about why certain decisions were made. One recipe was this Prohibition era recipe for beer which I knew my uncle, also a home brewer, wanted, but she left it to me, with the comment that "I know you wanted it, Teddy, but she has the second-best penmanship of the girls and will make you a copy."

And then like eight pages later, in among the specific descriptions of her vast collection of romance novels (really,) was a line: "And [specific Jude Devereaux title] to Spidey, who will please subtract about half the hops before she copies the beer recipe for her Uncle Teddy so that any of us can drink it. Our Jon had his IPA last summer and just about died."

Uncle Jon just about burst into tears laughing and Uncle Teddy had long since left the room because he has no f***s whatsoever to give about romance novels. Uncle Jon, of course, was still in the room because there was also still Yuengling.

And no, I have no idea how she got this will done. My guess is she wrote it herself and the law students who come to her independent-living building signed off on it. It was...elaborate, that's for sure. Total value of the estate was well under eight thousand dollars, so it was mostly a funny last letter from Grandma.

spiderqueendemon , Sincerely Media Report

Final score:
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#11

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made I am a qualified solicitor, my favourite two are:

1. A lady wanted to create a trust fund of £100,000, for her pet fish. When I asked if it was a special kind of fish, she confirmed it was just a normal goldfish but she wanted it to be fed fresh avocado every day and be looked after by a local dog walker after she died. She was absolutely serious.

2. Another lady confessed she had a secret daughter, and she wanted to leave the daughter some money and photographs without the rest of her family finding out. Even her husband does not know. That will be a fun conversation when she passes away.

scarlett_pimpernel , imso gabriel Report

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#12

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Saw this answer from a similar question some time ago. When a dad died he set up financial installments so long as his daughter remains under a certain weight. Dude was controlling her diet from the grave.

anon , i yunmai Report

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#13

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My sister’s mother in-law is leaving her house to her three sons. If one wants to sell out his third of the house, he has to sell it to the other two brothers for $1.

Processtour , Scott Webb Report

Final score:
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Trisha Howson
Trisha Howson
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hate it when a family dose this causes so much trouble. I've seen things like this sometimes take years for something to happen almost like they wanted them to have drama over it

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#14

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made I work in probate. The oddest thing I’ve seen in a will is to euthanize their beloved horse, have it cremated and it’s ashes scattered with the decedent. Lucky for her horse, she named a horse that was already dead so the one she got afterwards lived to see another farm.

gabberrella24 , Silje Midtgård Report

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#15

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made "No, ma'am, in order to bequeath something, you actually have to own it."

Michaeldim1 , Gabrielle Henderson Report

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CPooh
CPooh
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not true, at least in the US. You can bequeath anything you want. The probate court will just ignore or invalidate the bits that aren’t possible to follow. ( I’m a lawyer in Texas. I have written wills.)

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#16

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made When my grandfather passed it was discovered they they had been closet millionaires. No one in the family knew, but some good investments and frugal habits learned during the depression had turned out well for them. Of course they had 11 kids, so it got parceled down to about $100,000 each. Side note: Parents were encouraged to give their kids a slice and I just put a down payment on my first house -- thanks memere and pepere!

layinginbedrightnow , Alexander Mils Report

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#17

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Lots of people sending their friends and family on weird errands to spread their ashes (leaving money for people to take trips and spread their ashes around the world).

Pet trusts are a fun one: leaving a whole whack of money in a trust to be used for the care of the pet during their life.

However, my favourite ever (that I obviously didn’t draft) was a lawyer who left the bulk of his estate (millions in today’s dollars) to whatever Toronto-area woman had the most children at a specific date some years in the future. I recall the winner had 10.

PirateRobotNinjaofDe , Ben Wicks Report

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Trisha Howson
Trisha Howson
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's a nice idea shows he really cared doubt anyone knew about it either. Glad that woman an her ten kids got it

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#18

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My grandfather and his law partner opened a small law firm "out of a broom closet", in a small Midwestern town in the 50s. Most of their cases were wills and contracts, small town stuff.

His very first client was an old farmer who wanted his will made, that left, among other things, a taxidermied dog to his only son.

By the mid 60s the firm was rapidly outgrowing their tiny office. A local lawyer died suddenly, leaving his office on the town square up for grabs. They took it sight unseen, my granddad and his partner got an awesome lease on huge law office suite on the town square, 30 yards from the courthouse.

The first client guy died the very day they got the keys to the new office. His son was the first client at the new office, he came in with the taxidermied dog while they were literally moving boxes. He dealt with his father's estate, and planned his own estate. And then he asked my grandad to store the taxidermied dog for a week while he fumigated. My grandfather agreed to put the dog into an unused office, and the guy went on his way.

When my granddad moved the dog into an upstairs office, he found a locked wall safe that hadn't been mentioned in the lease. The property owner had no idea it was even there, let alone the combination, and told my grandad he could have whatever he found.

My granddad called his best buddies, a couple of young lawyers, doctors, a realtor, and the local mortician, to come help him crack the safe. They tried to crack the safe, even using one of the doctors stethoscopes. Much to their chagrin, they failed miserably. Feeling defeated, they finally called the local locksmith, who managed to get it unlocked. They paid the locksmith before he looked inside, not knowing what sensitive material they might have found.

That was a good call. There was no money, but they found a mason jar full of hashish, and a couple of quarts of moonshine. It all magically disappeared, and by complete coincidence the parties they threw were the stuff of small town legends.

The guy came back for the dog a week later, and my grandfather told him that he thought the dog was a lucky charm. The guy redid his will a few years later, and left the taxidermied dog to the firm. It was still there when I was a little girl in the 80s, every time my granddad would bring me to the office I would pet it the whole time.

trouble_ann , Rob Pongsajapan Report

Final score:
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#19

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My vindictive grandmother left my aunt $20 as a reminder of the $20 my aunt stole from her once.

anon , bark Report

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#20

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made i got some rock my grandpa really liked.

MAX-definitely-DOG , Wolfgang Hasselmann Report

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#21

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made A furby collection from models collected in the late 90’s. They were convinced they would retain future value.

This was 2011.

2rio2 Report

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#22

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My grandfather left me $1.00, he had dementia and confused my dad ripping him off with me. He left the rest of the family between $100,000 And a few million each.
They all said they felt horrible because they knew the details, but not horrible enough to give up any of their share.
The way I see it is it was never my money to begin with, so it's not a loss. I'm just glad my sister got a hundred thousand,she needed it more than any of the others.

Killallthemods , Viacheslav Bublyk Report

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CPooh
CPooh
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’m calling bs on this. I’m not aware of anywhere in the world that freely allows people with such significant dementia to make enforceable wills.

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#23

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My friends mother had in her will “that cat gets to live in my house alone until it expires” the cat lived there for a few years alone with a caregiver checking on it. Yes she was rich.

BrannyB , Michael Sum Report

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Debbie Barnes
Debbie Barnes
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't see the problem with this. This was the cat's home. Good for her!

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#24

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Had a friend who had a toxic relationship with his uncle. When his uncle passed he was surprised to find he was in the will. Turns out there was a handwritten IOU that read “I’m leaving you 15k BUT you have to come get it from me. I’ll see you in hell!” My friend laughed.

ThisSideOfVanishing , Ricardo Gomez Angel Report

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#25

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Here’s one from one of my dad’s law partners. He had a lady come in with an itemized list of books and wanted her will to contain all of the books and who will get what based on her choosing. So basically she decides who gets what specific book instead of letting her beneficiaries decide. The truly astonishing thing is how many books and how specific they get. According to dad’s law partner her list is at about 2,000 books to be divided among about 30 people. She is apparently very specific and comes back at least once a year to add all the new books she’s gotten.

littleredbird1991 , Tom Hermans Report

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WildHoneyPie
WildHoneyPie
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You never know. Some books can be worth big bucks. When a former library director of our local system retired, a book on the windowsill in his office (the absolute worst place for a book) was valued at $50,000.

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#26

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My dad told me this about when my grandpa set up his will.
Basically, he first wanted to discuss the "who gets what" with his family first before putting it into writing. Smart, because that can nip a lot of issues later on in the butt.
So, my grandpa is sitting down with his two sons, discussing who gets what. And my mother and my aunt are there, and they're having a lot of ideas on how to split everything, whether item A is equal to monetary value B, and, most importantly, what their respective part of the family could do with what item/possession.
At some point, my grandpa had enough. He told the wives to leave the room because "hey, quit arguing about my stuff and money like that. I am not dead yet!".
But the most poignant thing he said was that he was dividing his earthly possession up between his sons. Not their wifes, not his grandchildren. He had two sons, and they would get the lions share.
There were provisions in there for individual items that he would ask people about. Do you want this? Would that thing make you happy? Could you use X? And he put aside certain monies to be divied up between the grandchildren, cousins, etc.
But he was very firm on who gets what and he communicated it very clearly. This is my stuff. I decide. And the only imput I value is by the two people I've known all their lives.
Well, he died and everyone was informed and knew what to expect.
My grandma is still alive. Years ago, around the same time that will was being drafted, she decided that most of her most valuable possessions should be similiarly taken care of.
She labeled all her jewelery. Put them in those little plastic bags that you freeze stuff in, because the bags my grandma uses for that have little labels on them that you can write on. Made the whole thing easy.
And then she eventually decided "why wait" and distributed them as gifts. She was getting up there, and she pretty much never had occassion to wear jewelery any more except for one or two beloved items.
I feel that there is an important lesson here: Deal with this kind of stuff early, communicate clearly, preferably when everyone involved is actually there, live. Everyone witnesses it and can't deny it later.
Not that there was any danger of that happening in my family, I think.
But I guess my grandparents knew: Inheritance, and money in general, can rip families apart. And if you want to curb that risk, no matter how insignificant it may seem, you gotta address the problem head on. You cannot hide from the problems caused by your death, just like can't hide from death itself.
Peace of mind, and a family not at risk of engaging in litigation against each other, is worth some time and effort.

TheWordShaker , Jack Finnigan Report

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kathoco
kathoco
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There's a crazy number of people on this site that think the expression is nip it in "the butt". It's nip it in "the bud". Like a flower, when it's a bud, you cut it so that it will not get bigger.

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#27

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made I had the first son so my dad decided to leave me more. Except he did the math wrong and it came out to 105%. He had dementia.

anon , Alina Ryabchenko Report

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Kusotare
Kusotare
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Your siblings probably had a pretty good case to challenge the will based on your father's mental incapacity.

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#28

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Not a lawyer but my grandpa put in his will a chocolate bar for everyone one of his grand kids. Well I have like 12 cousins and very difficult to track down where a couple of them went. All this estates and money he had in will was at a stand still for months because they couldn’t find my couple cousins. Had to show court we put in effort to hire someone to track them down etc. The lawyer that was helping execute the Will was blown away that this lawyer allowed this and why he wouldn’t highly suggest not to do it. But I’m not complaining cause I got a Toblerone out of the deal!

rv14guy , Towfiqu barbhuiya Report

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The Scout
The Scout
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The "tracking down" part might exactly been the point of this clause, maybe a try to get them together at one place or at least making contact again...

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#29

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Had a very attractive woman with terminal cancer try to get herself stuffed by a taxidermist and given to some rich guy that had been basically a sugar daddy to her for a few months. She said "He would give me a million dollar a week allowance as long as it was in an official will that he could see." I sent her to a lawyer who I knew that would do about anything for a buck because I didn't want to end up in the news when she died. That was 2 years ago, no clue what happened to her.

WillLie4karma , patrick janicek Report

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Kusotare
Kusotare
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A guy who has been stuffing her wants her stuffed post mortem so he can continue stuffing her? Is that right?

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#30

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made When my great grandad died in his will he stated that his coin collection be split equally across his family. There was like 8-9 of us and 3 potato sacks full of coins. So we all gathered round a table and each took one coin each until nothing was left. Among the coins was an Iron Cross, which was quiet odd as the only person on that side of the family that went to war was his dad, and he served with the ANZAC’s in WW1.

X_TheRussianSquid_X , regularguy.eth Report

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#31

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made I research land and often go through wills to determine ownership of property.

“To my wife I leave a length of rope long enough to hang herself.”

catdogyosh , Robert Zunikoff Report

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Peacemaker21
Peacemaker21
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Happy ending: "She should then use the rope to pull the stone in our front yard the distance of 12 inches. She will then find all my money, the whole 2 mil, kept in a chest in the hole below the stone."

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#32

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My father is heavily involved in my great aunt and uncle's lives since their health has begun to decline (both mid 90's with no children), and has seen their will.
They have a small fortune (in excess of £1,000,000), and have left it all to a local dog's home.
When he asked them about it, my great uncle's response was "nobody has helped me in life, so I won't be helping anybody either."

ExoticBiologist , Berkay Gumustekin Report

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Auntriarch
Auntriarch
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's a bit mean, to say that to people who are actually helping him right now

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#33

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made I'm not a lawyer, but my grandfather saved his kidney stone so that he could leave it to my cousin. They never really got along.

anon , dfaulder Report

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Auntriarch
Auntriarch
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They wouldn't let me have my great grandfather's glass eye, I'm still a bit cross about that

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#34

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made In my Mums will, which I have seen, she has left me the kitchen table and chairs.

She lives on a South Manchester council estate.

My brother gets the sideboard.

Starman68 , Stephan Louis Report

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Debbie Barnes
Debbie Barnes
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This sounds a little ungrateful to me. Perhaps she worked and saved for these items of furniture, which is why she valued them so much. Perhaps she should give them to a charity shop where they will be appreciated?

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#35

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made I’m the executor of my grandmother’s will. I also get the house and everything in it and a share of life insurance that’s split three ways between myself, sister, and mom. My mom has always said that all my dad , my grandmothers son-in-law, would like to have is some table. Well in the will there’s like a whole paragraph that states how my dad gets nothing, he doesn’t lay a finger on any thing in the house or any money. How my dad is basically worthless and deserves nothing and how he was a c**p dad and that she begrudgingly has my mom in the will. Thanks grandma I’ll appreciate the awkwardness.

Cocoah83 , Sven Mieke Report

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James G. Currie
James G. Currie
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

*A week after the funeral* "Oh, hey, Dad, I just bought a new table, could you help me dispose of the old one?" (Gives dad the table and some appropriate accessories that go with...)

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#36

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My grandfather has in his will to say “hi so-n-so.” Just so he can say that he mentioned that person in his will. He tells lots of people in the family that they are ‘in his will.’ It’s a joke that only he thinks is funny and he won’t be around for the punch line. I think it’s brilliant. He has about 10 people mentioned.

rcooplaw , Seb [ P34K ] Hamel Report

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James G. Currie
James G. Currie
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've been told that the easiest way to prevent a successful challenge of a will by a family member is to expressly mention them in the will... Don't know how accurate it is, but there ya go!

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#37

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Client wanted her ashes spread at the restaurant (on the beach) where she met her husband.

ronnstor , Mathew Schwartz Report

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phil blanque
phil blanque
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At an outdoor table: "Waiter there is dirt on my eggs!." Waiter examines the food and says: "No, madam, that is just Mrs..Westinghouse. Not to worry...she was totally organic."

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#38

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Lawyer here. Probably the woman who wanted to gift the frozen semen of her dead dog.

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Cat Palmer
Cat Palmer
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I guess if it was a rare breed or a show champion and so worth something to breeders this kinda makes sense? Kinda?

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#39

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made My wife has clear instructions to use some of my life insurance to buy a dilapidated house out in the countryside, tie my corpse to a chair, and throw a raging party in my honor inside.

Afterwards, when everyone is good and hammered, douse me in accelerant and burn the house to the ground with me still inside. Party ain't over till the house (and me) is no more.

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Laugh or not
Laugh or not
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds illegal in most countries. Bodies can only be managed by professionals. Also, depending on how fast it is to read the will and execute it, the body would be in quite a state.

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#40

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made Lady wanted her small dog to be buried with her. If the dog happened to be alive when the lady passed, she wanted the dog put down and then join her.

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#41

(Not a lawyer) But, my grandpa (not by blood) had two blood daughters who disowned him when I was really young as they'd been brainwashed by their mother. When they found out he was sick, they came snooping around asking about the will and we wouldn't let them near him, but we let him know. In his will he left them each a dollar with the note "So you can't say I didn't leave you anything".

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The Scout
The Scout
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually this is not a small bit of spite, but a clever legal trick. This way, they are unable to contest the will on cause of being forgotten.

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#42

Not a lawyer but my grandmother’s will stated that my father had to outlive her by a certain amount of time (I honestly don’t remember exactly how long, I was 15). My father died less than a month after she did, so instead of things going to my father the next step was the estate being divided between me, my sister, and two cousins. It was so bizarre!

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#43

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made "Not a lawyer" but I worked with plenty of estates and trust accounts over the years. This particular scenario isn't so much about the will itself being strange, but the circumstances that led up to the trust account being opened:

I used to work at a bank in the estates department. I was an administrator who had to manage the files including encroachments upon the capital (i.e. "I want to take some money out now, please").

I had this one account - multi-million dollar trust for one single beneficiary - the son of the deceased. What's interesting is that the son killed the parents... with a hammer in grotesque and brutal fashion. He plead insanity.

He would call once a year from the penitentiary / mental hospital, requesting $50 for commissary (to buy chips and gum). The call was always strange. He was very polite, very doped up. The quality of the call was always very "tinny" like he was far away from the phone.

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Rose the Cook
Rose the Cook
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Where did I get the idea that if you kill somebody you can't be a beneficiary of their estate?

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#44

My great uncle's official will gave the contents of his Outhouse to the City Council of a nearby town after they'd tried to take his land twice to build a new water treatment plant. He spent quite a few years fighting eminent domain claims and just wanted to give them something in return. As a joke his kids boxed up all the books and magazines in the out house and dropped them off at City Hall

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#45

Not a lawyer, work for a will writers / trusts specialist in the UK, currently studying toward my TEP.

One of our earlier clients passed recently. Turns out the man she left almost everything to, including the residue of her estate--which was considerable--was her regular taxi driver. She had also named him as her executor. He had no clue.

The woman named as her executor and main beneficiary on her previous two wills, a close friend of many years, was understandably flabbergasted and contested the will.

We responded to her solicitor's Larke v Nugus request, informed Mr Taxi Driver (who didn't even know our client had passed) and the will was upheld. Aforementioned friend was left a legacy of £5000 if I remember correctly, but her nose was clearly out of joint.

Bonus observation: it takes a lot less than £5000 being up for grabs to make families turn against each other. Can get really nasty. One of the most startling things I've learned in my short time in this business.

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Mental Liberals
Mental Liberals
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Like the governments, corporations, elitists, and big pharma: Profits Before People

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#46

Lawyers Who Write Wills Are Sharing The 40 Weirdest And Craziest Requests Their Clients Have Made I once wrote a will for a guy who thought he could get away from giving his ex-wife half his assets by putting them in a will for his kids. Doesn’t work like that, buddy boy.

The_Chaggening , Kelli McClintock Report

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CPooh
CPooh
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually, it DOES work that way in the US and other common law countries. Once the divorce is done, exes are not entitled to any of your property. (Technically, neither are your kids. It’s yours. You can leave it all to the dog if you want.)

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#47

Not a Lawyer, but helped drive a dear elderly friend of mine to his appointments to have his will redone after his wife died.
He was a member of a VFW, that was very badly mismanaged, to the point they were coming to him to bail them out of debt for thousands every other month. At the same time this was happening, the commander of that VFW had his wife begging to 'borrow' money for their personal account as well.
He tried to have it put in his will that while he had planned on leaving the majority of his money to the VFW, he could not in good faith leave the money, knowing it would be so badly mismanaged, and probably used to offset the addictions of people in charge.
Attorney would not allow that, but he did agree to hold a letter with the man's explanation for after his death.
I am assuming the attorney did send it, because I know the commander and his awful wife have been stirring up trouble with the man's family, trying to have his will contested.

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#48

Not really the question but related:

A lawyer once advised my 90 years old aunt to adopt me (24 at the time) to avoid paying inheritance tax. Now I'm not a big fan of tax avoidance... but her last name is "Falcon" in my language which is immensely cooler than my current surname. Almost would've done it.

Edit: A lot of people are asking why I haven't or saying I should have.

There were several things giving me grief about that plan, not only that I really loathe tax avoidance from all my heart. In the end it wasn't even necessary. My aunt just gifted me parts of the land she wanted to bequeath to me. So neither the gift nor the inheritance have/will come over the tax exemption amount.

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#49

A relative worked for a firm preparing wills and was confronted by an Executor who had an edict to “scatter the deceased’s ashes from a microlight aircraft”. He couldn’t fly one.

She kindly pointed out to him that the drafting said nothing about whether said microlight was in flight at the time of scattering.

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Kusotare
Kusotare
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sometimes the loopholes are big enough to drive a truck (or fly a plane) through.

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#50

My favorite is Ben Franklin leaving money to the cities of Philadelphia and Boston with the requirement that it be invested for like, at least 200 years. It became millions.

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Xenon
Xenon
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He also had barrels of coins he proposed as legal tender in his basement. They had the phrase "mind your business" on them. I have a replica of one. The originals are in a museum I think.

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#51

I advised on a will where the deceased had left considerable assets to people who were dead when the will was read. Nothing unusual in that, except that they were long dead when the will was made. The lawyer who made the will seems to have had doubts about his mental state, so sent him to a doctor for tests. The doctor gave him a full bill of health and said he was perfectly compos mentis.

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Ansi
Ansi
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So that money will be inherited by those peoples descendants then?

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#52

Not a lawyer (yet), but one interesting case in inheritance law that I came across was the one of a super rich owner of a private bank, who left his shares to his sons under the condition and restraint that they will act as managers of the private bank, but with a personal liability concerning the bank's debt. So what he did was giving them the money and commit them to lifelong work in the bank, while putting their own assets at risk. So when one of the sons decided to sell his shares because he was old and sick, the courts had to decide whether he gets any money from the will - the condition was NOT fulfilled anymore as he gave up the manager position. One other son wanted to sell his shares, of course that would not have been allowed under the condition either.

Edit: For those interested, these are the court rulings for the case: OLG München 21 U 1836/07 and BGH IV ZR 202/07.

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#53

Obligatory not a lawyer, just something that I experienced many years ago. I used to sell shitty software from a store in England a few years back. One of the pieces of software we used to sell was a Will Maker program that never sold one copy. So, I'm sitting there on the till when a very smartly dressed older gentleman comes in, pushing 90, I would imagine.

He seemed confused and slightly lost so I went over there and asked him if he needed help. He said yes he did, he was looking for something that would help him make his will and he didn't want his family to know because they were all fighting over his house and his money. I was slightly taken aback but I showed him the software we had. He looked at it (rather closely as his eyesight was very poor) and nodded to me that this will be fine.

I gave him the disc for free. He thanked me profusely and quietly left the store. I just stood there for a while watching him leave.

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#54

Not a lawyer, but worked for one and edited any changes he had wanted to make on Wills as he was older and not very tech savvy.

There was one older woman, about 84 years old who was, in simplest terms, quite insane and would call every single month to change her will. It would always be small details such as removing her daughters because they haven’t called her in a while, or increasing one child’s percentage and lowering another’s based on whether she was mad at them or not. But, one part she would never change was what she would leave for her dog. She wanted to leave her dog $25,000, plus more money for the care of her dog and to make sure she lived comfortably. Sadly, her dog passed away before her and she had to remove that part from her will. So she just went back to playing with the percentages her daughters would receive.

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Kusotare
Kusotare
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's not insane, but it IS sad. She's trying to manipulate and hurt her daughters in probably the only way she knows how.

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#55

Worked with a client who wanted language that her cats would be euthanized and buried with her. We had to explain why legally we couldn’t do that. The moral part just went over her head. One of the few clients who ever got under my skin.

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Deborah B
Deborah B
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How many pets end up going to kill shelters and being euthanised following their owner's death? I hope provision was made to rehome the poor cats when she died.

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#56

My old landlord took 2 years to boot me out because her mother who owned the place died and she wanted to sell the place. But her mothers carer said the mother verbally promised the house to her. Even though it was not written in the will it still took 2 years of fighting in court to clear things up. No, the carer didn't get it in the end even after all the appeals.

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Kusotare
Kusotare
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oral agreements are not valid for transfers of real estate in the US. They must be in writing.

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#57

my grandmother left $300 for her son who left the family to give to his “fat wife” to “take to dinner” lmao

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#58

My friend’s father was insane. Born poor and had polio. Served in w2 and built a business. 10 businesses in various industries, 9 rental homes in 3 states, bunch of cars and person property. Sent 5 kids and their kids to college. Took care of his infirm wife for 11 years without a break or assistance.

But he was also an a*****e. Refused to tell his kids anything, forbade them from know about his condition or visiting him in the hospitals for the ~4 years it took him to die. He had transferred all of his assets to a living trust and used a variety of shoddy lawyers to make sure his setup kept running for 2 years after he died with his kids blind to it. It took almost a decade to get access, figure out what he had, and unload it. Burned up almost half of what he’d accumulated. No apparent reason aside from stubbornness.

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#59

Okay caveat not a Will, but I was reviewing a client’s prenup and the paperwork stated that in the event of a divorce, they use a coin flip to determine who would keep any joint property. After 30 days if they didn’t decide what they wanted to do, their ex would then be able to have claim over the home and do with it as they wished. Oddest thing I’ve ever come across.

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Kusotare
Kusotare
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's actually a brilliant provision. It forces them to decide and agree, lest it be left to chance. Of course, one party could use it in spite, but that's true of many provisions.

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#60

I had a Russian client. Son of an oligarch. His father created a trust which provided dispositive provisions for if he was kidnapped and not found within a certain number of months. Freaked me out. I believe the will had similar language too, but I can’t remember now.

Edited: now that I think about it. I believe there was a separate document (in addition to the trust) that provided that his will should be effective to the extent he was kidnapped and not recovered within a certain period of time.

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#61

Not a lawyer, but I plan on adding a line to my will, saying the real killer is in the room

here's hoping they believe me

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#62

Adopting your girlfriend. Not technically that but still.

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Don Williams
Don Williams
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That was done by a billionaire in the U.S. in an effort to shield his property from a massive payout due to repeated horrific actions over a DUI.

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