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Estate Planning 101: Steve McNair’s Estate Is A Complete Mess

Posted on | September 30, 2009 |

Steve McNair never had an estate plan in place. He never had a will, a trust, or any other testamentary instrument. Although I frequently warn about the dangers of not having a proper estate plan in place, it is hard to imagine a set of facts that will be more devastating to his heirs. First, he likely made over $75 million over the course of his lifetime. Since he did not shelter that money from the federal government, he now may lose up to 45% of that wealth in taxes. That could be a $33,750,000 error. In addition, his wife will be receiving less money than he may have planned, because the remainder will be set aside for his children when they turn 18.

It is generally not a smart idea to give an 18 year old $10 million in one lump sum. That distribution could have been staggered for the rest of the child’s life to prevent misspending. Finally, because he did not have a trust in place, the entire probate of his estate will be subject to publicity through the media – and now all sorts of unsavory characters have access to the fact that those children will be receiving vast sums of money – which is disconcerting to say the least. Check out this blog’s breakdown of the unfortunate mistakes made in the McNair estate. Contact a San Diego estate planning attorney today to make a responsible step in the right direction for your family.

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