How Wills Work

Whether it's oral, scrawled in blood or signed on a deathbed everyone should have a will. But how do they actually work? Join Chuck and Josh as they explain that "of sound mind" thing in this episode on wills.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always this
Charles W. Chuck Chucker, Chuck Tran Bryant Chuck trans so

(00:25):
weird to me. I don't get it. Yeah, I have
no recollection of where that came from. Are no? Wait,
it was from a show though. Yeah, you didn't just
make that up, not just now, No, it was there
was It was in relation to something we were talking
about at the time and someone it made sense once, okay, um,
I was on our Facebook page. I was looking for
discussions like sometimes I like to go on and read
like what's your favorite line? Did you ever? Have you

(00:48):
ever read this? Just like a trip down memory lane?
Really yeah, there's like whole discussion threats. There's like forty
different threads people have created, But there was one that
was like, what's what's your favorite stuff? You should no
line of all time? And I can't I can't find
that thread any longer. That's a good one. Did you
go through and count on how many you had and
how many I had. I did not count. I kept

(01:08):
a running tally, but I didn't count just mentally. I
didn't write anything down as it as it were. Chuck. Yes,
nineteen seventy nine was a pretty good year for movies. Yeah, sure,
allow me. That year the Muppet movie came out. Creamer
Versus Kramer was number one at the box office. One
of my personal favorites Amityville Horror, the first one, the

(01:31):
nineteen nine one. Um, what do you Allen's Manhattan The Jerk.
That's my favorite all time movie. Manhattan is I've not
seen it? What I have not? Okay, the Jerk is awesome?
Oh wait, the Jerk or Manhattan? I said Manhattan? You
said U huh yeah, Manhattan. I was just I was
changing the subject, Okay, all right. I like The Jerk, Alien,

(01:52):
Rocky two, Alien so far ahead of its time, Moonraker
so behind the times. But none of these held a
candle too in my opinion. Overlooked movie by director Michael
Schultz a classic called Scavenger Hunt. Really have you ever
seen it? No? You've not seen Scavenger Hunt? Uh? No?

(02:14):
Was it kind of a riff on? It's a mad, mad,
mad mad world. I can see how some maybe some
uh elitists might make that distinction or that that um comparison. UM.
I personally think that it's a great movie and it's
about Vincent Price. While it begins Vincent Price, is this

(02:36):
aged video game magnet? Was he ever young? No? He
was born like Golden Gray. Yeah, and suave, though he
was much more suave than he led on UM. He
is dying and he actually does die playing one of
his video games, and then you cut to the his
his former home, and his lawyer is executing his will,

(02:58):
which his stated worth two million dollars. And it turns
out we learned very quickly as all the characters assemble
that the whole thing is up for grabs, just single
team who go on a scavenger hunt. Did you really
see this or is this just I grew up on
this one? Okay, Yeah, that's a great movie. Have you
really not seen it? No, I've never heard of it.
I strongly recommend it, and I found it just to

(03:20):
get myself in the mood. I found it on YouTube
in parts I think eleven parts, like ten minutes segments.
So if you're a very cheap person um or can't
find it it's up on YouTube. Sweet. I think if
you search um Scavenger Hunt and then in parentheses it'll
it'll bring it up awesome. So the whole point of

(03:41):
that was that number one, Scavenger Hunt is a good movie,
and number two people do some wacky things with wills.
That scenario wasn't that far off from things that people
have done with their wills. We're talking about will's chuck,
let's get ready to talk about contract law. And now
this is one of the first articles I wrote, and

(04:02):
it was a little rigid, but there's not a lot
you can do. I mean, try to make it a
little fun at the end. But I was fully planning
on complimenting you on this article. It's a good article.
It's comprehensive, it's got everything you need. I mean, you
don't get into like any of the legal momo jumbo,
but that's not the role of the site. And you
know what, let's just go ahead and say, I'm glad
you brought that up. We are not attorneys. You should
not take this podcast and base your will and life
on Please do not do that. No, but that being said,

(04:26):
you can get um all the documents you need to
create your own will for six dollars and cents at Staples.
Really huh, yeah, they have everything. Well, that brings up
one of the first points, which is a will isn't
super complicated to draw up. Um, and it varies from
state to state, so you can do it yourself, but
you should get an attorney to look over things. But

(04:48):
if you want to save a few bucks, you can
always go to Staples. Well, well we should probably say
that again and again through this this podcast, as you
did again and again through this article, Like really, you
should have at the very least an attorney. Look, get
your will if you're gonna do it yourself, right, Um,
let's talk about some of the specifics. Man, if if
you are um, if you have ten minutes to write

(05:10):
this thing a piece of paper and a pen, what
are the high points that you want to hit to
make your will as close to legal as possible? And
by the way, state law governs wills, right, yeah, And
you always got to check with your state and if
you if you want to call it up and be
like state, I got some questions for you. And if
you have a will in one state and you move
it'll it'll still be valid. But you still should check

(05:31):
your state's laws and stuff like that, right, because is
it the state you die in? That is the state
that you execute your your will is executed, Inez, because
it seems like if you were going to move, it
would seem like that's the way it would go. I guess. So.
But what if you you die on vacation in Hawaii?
Is your will wouldn't be based on I think it.
I think it's pertains to the state in which it
was drafted and approved. Check with your lawyer, check, or

(05:57):
at least call the state. I don't think you'd stop
me so early. Sorry, all right, So what you want
to have, at the very bare minimum is your name,
your spouse's name if you have one, and when you
were married. Yeah, your your children's names so they can
make sure they're not confusing you or your other spouse
with your spouse in the will. That's right, Um, your
children's names. And I love this part. How you want
any step children or false foster children to be treated?

(06:19):
You could be like, well, yeah, please treat them well.
Um a statement provoking any other wills if you have one, Um,
you gotta name your executor and an alternate. You should
name an alternate list of powers that you want that
executor to have special gifts, personal property and uh. Instructions
for distributing paying debts. There are actually you know, you

(06:42):
can't decide whether or not you want to pay your debts,
but after debt has been paid, how you want your
stuff to be doled out? So I'm officially founding a
movement that if you're debtors can't get the money they
need out of you while you're alive. That's that. Yeah,
didn't you look that up? What's the what's the law
for it? Varies by state again, um, but generally, if

(07:06):
you have enough money to pay, say like a credit
card debt, you have to pay that credit card debt.
But there there are, um, there are onuses on credit
card companies, like they have to notify your executor um
within like sixty days or something of this outstanding debt
UM and if it turns out that there's not enough money,

(07:27):
then you can basically say like, sorry, that's that, and
the credit card company has to write it off and
then we all pay for it with our outrageous financing fees.
In the end um burial instructions, you can sometimes put
it in a will, but you should burial. I just
got pick tongue tonight burial, and you probably want those

(07:48):
somewhere else though, because sometimes the will isn't like immediately accessible.
If you've got it locked in a safe in your family,
there's another combination. They're gonna theyre's gonna leave you laying
around on the floor of the kitchen for days. You
don't need to sweat your pension plan or life insurance
or annuity stuff like that because that's all taken care
of they the beneficiary or in those documents, so that
need to be in your will, right, and it can

(08:09):
actually screw things up right or not screw things up.
It can slow things down because you can say I
want this, you know, my life insurance policy to go
to my estate and then divvy it up. But that
just adds a lot more time to the process. Correct. Absolutely, Um,
you should probably in most states have to be at
least eighteen years old to have a legal will, and

(08:29):
you have to everyone knows you have to be of
sound mind and body, or I think it's just sound mind, yeah,
because I mean, what does your body of do with
As long as you can like make an X or
you know, draw a whale like quick wag, you're fine.
So what does uh, what does that mean legally speaking? Mentally? Um?
Sound Well, I'm glad that you brought that up, or

(08:49):
I'm glad that you put this in the article, because
I think it's a good idea. Basically, you have to
know that you own property. You have to know about it. Right.
If you don't know that you have like a hundred
acres in Montana, then you're not probably a sound mind.
Or you did at one time know that you had
it and just don't remember any longer, that that could
be a problem as well. If you're not it is

(09:13):
it's it's kind of said to not be of sound mind, um,
if you're not suffering from a mental illness, which I
remember I saw a remake of Psycho which wasn't Psycho
to It was made for TV and it was kind
of a spoof comedy and the thing starts with the
execution of Norman Bates will and it gets to the
point where it says, I Norman Bates being of sound mind,

(09:34):
and everybody in the rooms like. But it kind of
brings up a point like what do you do if
you are mentally ill and you have a bunch of assets,
and you've never created a will and you want to
create when you just do you die Intestine. That's a
good question into state. I do know that. Uh. If
you become mentally ill later on, then it doesn't matter

(09:55):
as long as you were of sound mind when you
first wrote the will, right, okay, Um. You also need
to be aware of the people who are related to you. Again,
like not like you fathered a kid back in nineteen
sixty two that you didn't know about. That's not what
they're talking about. They're talking about the kid that you
had in nineteen sixty two and raised into an adulthood
is still recognizable to you. And also you generally probably

(10:19):
shouldn't hold conversations with lack of cons that tell you
to burn things. That's usually a big red flag that
you might not be a sound mine. That's right, so Chuck,
that's sound mine. Um. And let's say you've got that
check check check. You know about your Lana Montana, you
know your kid's name. Um, you you don't suffer from
mental illness, and you are ready to create your will?

(10:43):
All right? Boom the executor. Yes, that is the most
important person in your will, because that is the person
that is gonna make an inventory of all your junk. Um,
they're gonna pay your debts. They're legitimate debts. That is
not Vinny who comes over and say zo he met,
although you may want to pay that too if you're smart.

(11:05):
Um distributes the assets under the terms of the will.
So it can be anybody, but you want it to
be someone you really really trust, someone who's probably pretty smart,
maybe has a little business experience, and someone who is
thoughtful because you can get ugly. You want someone this
is a tough time for a family usually, and you

(11:28):
want someone that's got some a good bedside manner if
they're going to execute your will, not some jerk. Right.
You also want somebody who has a lot of time
to go to your house and inventory stuff. I remember
when I found out my sister is my dad's executive
tricks um, and I was like, what about me? And
I've read about Okay, you're just like cut me the check. Yeah.

(11:50):
I actually think my dad likes me more than I thought,
now that I know what an executive executive let off
the hook. Yeah, So, Chuck, let's talk about the different
kinds of wills. Right. There's obviously the standard like ironclad will.
It's been drafted by an attorney or whatever. But she'll
talk about in a second. But there's some kind of
interesting wills because death doesn't necessarily happen, um, when you're

(12:12):
counting on it. Exactly. That should be this, that should
be stuff you should know. His new model, the new slogan,
death doesn't happen when you're counting on it. Death doesn't
necessarily happen when you're counting on it. Just to add
that extra like it that it's suspense. Um. So you're
talking about probably um, a couple of things. One can
be an oral will, which is a lot of times

(12:33):
in the in the old days, and it might still
happen because soldiers are still very young and might not
think that they need a will because they're young and
their bulletproof. But a lot of times soldiers on the
battlefield would execute an oral well to their buddy there
as their dying in the trenches. You want to do too, buddies,
oh to two witnesses. Yeah, that that definitely helps the

(12:54):
helps the case that it's legal. Yeah. And the in
the scenario I just mentioned, which is the dying soldier
on the battlefield is one of the more common ways
that an oral will will be upheld, right because I
imagine they have a lot of compassion for something like that. Yeah,
and um, if they can find your your buddies and
get them to sign an affidavit, or they can actually
come to probate court and say, yes, this is what

(13:16):
he said. He said to leave it all to me. Yeah, no,
he said to leave it all to me. Then it
turns ugly. But if they both agree that it is
what you said, then um, it's probably going to stand
up in court. Right. So what's a deathbed will? A
deathbed will is virtually the same thing, but say, rather
than dying young and being of sound mind, you might
be on your deathbed and are suffering from Alzheimer's or

(13:37):
something like that. So the deathbed will. Um. It also
can be written to it's more of like the time
rather than the type. Right. Um, so the the it
can be written, It can be oral, and you can
have several witnesses. But it's also the most commonly challenged
one because mental capacity is frequently argued like this person

(13:58):
didn't know what they were talking about, or sobody you
know had their feeding two kinks, so they did it
under Durest. You know. Yeah, there's a holographic wheel, Josh,
very informal, handwritten. Usually this is the coolest looking will.
That's right, it's not a hologram. Uh. Not all states
recognize these as valid um, so as always check with

(14:18):
your state. But scenario where this might happen is you
wreck your car on a snowy road in the middle
of nowhere and you're like, I'm gonna die and I'm
gonna scratch out my will, or you pee it into
the snow. That would be awesome. Or if you're James
Franco or that real dude and you're stuck in a

(14:40):
and a boulder, you could probably videotape it. Although I
think holographic is strictly handwritten, so that would be an
oral deathbed will sort of commonly written in blood, but
one's own blood. Um. Yeah, that's that's a pretty cool one.
I said it was cool. Yes, yeah, I think that's
the coolest one. Did you think so? Yeah, the impending

(15:01):
death by oneself. Yeah yeah, and you just scratch it
out on whatever paper you have and then succumb to
the elements. I think it's neat because you think about it,
you're thinking about the people you love and in some
way they're there with you. Right then, Yeah, but what
if you're saying I don't want to leave any of
those no good uh never do wells anything, Well, then
you deserve to freeze to death. Okay, Uh, there's the

(15:23):
d I y will which you mentioned. You can get
um on the internet or I guess it Staples. You
can get the forms. Self probating wills can save you
a little time. Well, this is the ironclad will, right
I think so? So this is the one where you
hire a lawyer to draft it, at the very least
review it. But probably you've hired a lawyer to draft
your will a couple hundred bucks from what I understand. Um,

(15:45):
and the the witnesses sign affidavits ahead of time that
are part of the will, saying like yes, this guy
did say this, So you don't have to These witnesses
don't have to appear in probate court to testify that
this is the correct will. Right. So it expedites the
whole process. It makes it more difficult to challenge and

(16:05):
basically it's the butt of boom butt of being of wills.
Don't contest me, baby, is what it says at the bottom. Uh.
And since we're talking about contesting and changing, that happens
all the time, totally legal. The only person that can
change a will is the test to tour. Why is
that funny? That's like Hodgment says, complain ant and defend

(16:25):
at and Judge John Hodgman. So the testatur is the
only person that can do this. It's very common a
lot of reasons. You might have a new kid, you
might get divorced, you might get married, you might start
hating your kid, might start hating your kid. The tax
laws might change in your favors. You can tweak it
a bit. Uh. You might all of a sudden, you
might win the lottery and think, oh, you know what,

(16:47):
I might want to rethink how my will has read
at this point. Or you might just feel like, you
know what, I'm kind of old and my kids are
doing okay, so I'd rather just leave my money to
some great charities. That's a nice thing to do. Yeah, Okate,
he's leaving the line share of his though to charity.
Oh yeah, while he's alive. Even that's right. Um, And okay,
So let's say that your your elderly parent dies and

(17:11):
you decide that, um, he or she is obviously crazy
because he or she left his or her money to charity. Right,
you can challenge this, Right, that's right, and there are
a number of ways to challenge it. But it's that's
it's first of all, it's a very difficult, long and
expensive process. Unless you have like real solid evidence of

(17:35):
one of maybe several points that that could possibly overturn
a will, it's gonna be you're not gonna win, and
not anyone can challenge like Joe Schmo off the Street
or like let's say you, I couldn't challenge your will
and say but Josh was my podcast partner saying, you know,
it doesn't matter. I don't know. You could technically be
a person of legal standing, which is what you have

(17:56):
to be too challengea will. You either have to be
someone who is in the will and you're challenging it
like I got rem this is terrible. I want more
money than This's what is your problem, But you can't
challenge on fairness. You can do it, but you won't win.
Thank you for correcting me. Um, you could be like
somebody was holding this guy's feeding too. You know this
is because so that's when you can challenge, or you

(18:17):
could be someone who should have been in the will
e g. A podcaster. I would think it's usually a
family member, though you probably have to be. I would
be relative blood or maybe marriage. But I'm sure if
you're a blood relative, it helps make you, Um, it
helps your position as a person of legal stand anymore.
I'm gonna challenge your will like when we're in our eighties,
and this is gonna be like some sort of proof
that I agree you should be a person of legal

(18:39):
standing at least will be like the Sunshine Boys, like
we haven't spoken in thirty years and like our children
are trying to get us together for a more show.
Did you ever see that? But I laughed anyway, right um.
And by the way, I'm leaving all my stuff to
you me so you can challenge it all you want, pal,
But I just contradicted your challenge and this is gonna
stand up. And you know, because this is a very

(19:00):
I would think that this would work. Yeah, I wouldn't
challenge Himy, she can have it all, Okay, she can
have your junk, So good junk. If you do, you do, Josh,
I have a good chunk. Um if you do challenge it, um,
which you're gonna You can either rewrite it completely, revoke
the original, or add something called the codasil to your
existing Well. It's just like an addendum basically. Oh, that's
if you want to change your well. But if you

(19:21):
want to challenge it, well, well, there's going to turn
out so right, the will is forged this one. Um
that it didn't meet the requirements of the state, Like
maybe the state requires two witnesses and there's only one. Right, Um,
it didn't. Uh, the person was coerced the testator, right,

(19:42):
it was coerced with the kink in the feeding too. Um,
the testator was a victim of fraud. What would that be?
I don't know. Um, Like maybe the person who drew
up the will wasn't really a lawyer but charged lawyer's
fee fraud. Yeah, okay. And then lastly, the beneficiary doesn't
improve the executor and this could be like the executors

(20:05):
maybe the fraudulent attorney. Yeah it can It can't just
be like she borrowed my pearl necklace once and never
gave it back. There's no way she can execute this
a state. Right. And I didn't get stats, but the
general feeling I get is that wills are pretty tough
to overturn unless, like you said, there's some pretty blatant
egregious errors or fraud going on, and if and if

(20:27):
it is rejected, then they just go to the state law,
which is, you know, your wife gets this percentage, your
firstborn gets this percentage, and on down the line. And
that's as if you had died without a will. That's
how they treated, which is called dying intest state. Yeah,
I never heard that word. Okay, so let's say that
you um, let's say that you really your kid. It

(20:49):
just really turns out to be a jerk. You did
everything you could, but you just don't like your kid.
You nurtured, you nurtured, you nurtured, and then natured one out.
It's like Sean Penn in the game or he went
through the game. Oh yeah, like that kind of guy.
All Right, Okay, you can cut your kid out of
the will, but there's you have to follow a specific guideline,

(21:12):
and that guideline is you officially have to disinherit your kid. Yeah,
and I'm surprised it's it's easier to write your child
out of your will than your spouse yeah, and you
you brought the child into the world you married the spouse.
I was surprised by that too, Chuck. Yeah, you like
you said, you disinherit a child for unless you have
some sort of ironclad pre nup, then your spouse husband

(21:34):
or wife is gonna be um, gonna be getting some
dough half. Generally is the is the way to go. Um.
So spouses are tough, kids are easy, right, but um,
most lawyers will be like, don't do that. Do not
just disinherit and don't try to cut your spouse out.
It's gonna make you look like a jerk. It's gonna

(21:55):
make a judge overturn your will. Here's what you do.
You give them each fifties sense Okay, right, pretty horrible, right.
That didn't make it look like a No, it doesn't.
But you put in an into rum clause that says
that if they challenge the will, that they forfeit everything.
And you know what that means in Latin, it means
in order to frighten. So basically it's saying, you know,

(22:17):
it's trying to scare someone off. Right, So the fifties
cents thing wouldn't work, right, You want to leave them
enough so that they are they they're gonna have what
they need, but they're still offended, like exactly right, So
like they're like, well, I could buy five dollars whether
the crack with that five thousand dollars, Maybe I should
just stick with this, you know. Yeah, divorce can complicate things. Obviously,

(22:40):
some states renders the will invalid, but most times just
the parts where the spouses in there will be uh addressed.
So the bequest is what the people get. The beneficiaries
are the people who get bequests actually figured out like
a pretty good sentence to explain all this. The beneficiary
receives a bequest from the tests will in probate court

(23:01):
at the behest of the executor. That's so clever, Thank you,
look at you. So the the beneficiaries are all going
to get slapped with what is called a death tax.
Really it's called in the state tax, but opponents of
the estate tax, the rich um basically created this other
name for it called the death tax, which is like

(23:22):
you're being taxed to die. You're not actually being taxed
to die. Your estates not even being taxed. Your beneficiaries.
Bequests are what are taxed The thing is, it's a
lot you know what I call it, what one final
little from the government from uncle saying like, you paid
your whole life, you paid your whole life, you died

(23:44):
on the battlefield, and then we're going to get some
more tax and it's hefty. Yeah. Well, I mean, part
of the reason why the estate taxes around is to
prevent dynasties from taking place. But the problem is with
all of the loopholes, tax shelters, that kind of stuff. Um,
the rich are the only ones who can afford to

(24:05):
get around from paying a state taxes, So that kind
of goes onto the middle class and prevents middle class
dynasties from being formed. But you know, it's really weird.
I cannot describe to you how severe the level of
deja vu I have right now. Is have we had
a conversation about the state taxes in that same vein

(24:27):
I don't think so. But we've done a podcast on
deja vu. Well, then prepare for some really vitriolic listener
mail from that one, because in my deja vu memory, Yeah,
that tick people off. What because you said that only
the rich people can know about these loopholes, Well, they
can afford accountants that can figure out these loopholes, lawyers
that kind of things, like you ain't gonna get that

(24:48):
at the six staples package. No, No, it actually says
good luck with the decks death taxes. Pale doesn't, so
chuck um. If if you are a person living in
I think two thousand six in the United States and
you inherited over ten thousand fifty dollars, what did you
pay close to three grand? That's just that that's just

(25:14):
for inheriting ten thousand and fifty one dollars, right, yeah,
well that's the base thing. Then you have to pay
an additional thirty five percent over and above the ten
thousand fifty dollars. So let me ask you that is
that thirty five percent on the whole thing or thirty
percent and the whole thing minus ten thousand and fifty dollars.
It's a good question, and I don't know, and I'm
sure some smart attorney will say, here's how it is going.

(25:36):
But if you're inheriting a million dollars, who cares? Yeah,
well that's a lot of change. Though, if it's like
Bucks right on ten thou yes, Josh, you're indeed right
a million bucks? Who cares. So there's the death taxes.
You can set up a trust. That is one good
way to UM maybe pay fewer taxes. UM. If smart

(25:58):
people often set up trust, rich people often set up trust. Well,
it also keeps your UM. You don't have to be
rich though. I've looked into trusts. About two grand to
set up a trust y UM and this number one
it's it's very speedy. It keeps it out of probate court.
Like when you die, you're dying wishes that are a
part of your will that are incorporated into this trust.

(26:19):
That's that right right, UM, So all of the stuff
gets divvied up right away. It stays out of court. Yeah.
And if you have a minor in your family, a
lot of times you'll set up a trust because if
you don't set up a trust, the court is going
to assign or there will be a conservator who will
oversee the assets of the minor. And I think eighteen
to twenty one generally in most states as when a

(26:41):
minor can all of a sudden handle their own finances.
But if you set up a trust, it's managed by
the trust store and they'll handle it for your kid. Yeah,
whoever that person is I would imagine someone just as
trustworthy is the executor, maybe one and the same. You're right,
and then chuck. Of course there is the living will,
right yeah, And there's a whole article on living wills,

(27:03):
but so we won't get into it too specifically. But
the living will has nothing to do with your money's
and properties. It is, um, Hey, if I'm ever in
a serious accident, I'm on a ventilator, here's how I
would like my UM, I would like you to pull
the plug or not pull the plug. And it's more
complicated than that, yeah, because that's like that's line one.
And the line too is if I'm ever attacked by

(27:26):
a dog and I need a heart that's coming, that's
that my family can afford take, you know, pull the
plug and then down the line right, yeah, And these
need to be signed and witnessed, and power of attorney
is usually included because if you can't cover every scenario obviously,
and the power of attorney would be let's say, you
know what, I want Emily to be in charge of

(27:46):
making this decision and not my mom, let's say, because
my mom would be like no, he'll pull through, and
Namily'd be like, yeah, he didn't look too good. She
wouldn't do that. I'm just kidding. Still funny, but yeah,
a living will is very important though for anyone of
any age. Um, it can get real messy. We've seen
it in the news time and time again. Uh so yeah,

(28:09):
get your living will taken care of. And I think
you can also just do like a blanket, like don't
don't take any heroic measures to save me. And I
don't want to be on any kind of life support
mine mine says, do never ever unplug me. Really, I
want to be a burden on my family for the
rest of my life, as long as that machine can

(28:30):
keep me alive. I want to be shaved once a
week from top to bottom. All right. That segways nicely
into odd things that can happen stipulations with your will.
Nice Is that how we should finish up? Yeah, totally.
You can have requirements of your big quest stores. No,
the beneficiaries and officiaries like, hey, this article. I know

(28:54):
it's a long time ago, um like hey, I want
I want to give my son the majority of my fortune,
but he's got a Finnish college first, or quit smoking.
I saw was thinking of me when you wrote that
that was not you were smoking a ton back then, though,
yes you were. Um, so let's talk about some funny
and and odd things in history with wills. Josh finished

(29:16):
on a lighter note. Well, there's Portuguese aristocrat Louis Carlos.
They no rona coupled all the camara. That's terrible, And
I sounded like I took a bite of peanut butter
towards the end. Do you want to do that one? Well,
I'll now that you said his name, Um, I'll tell
you what he did. He picked seventy so you don't

(29:38):
want to try that one. He picked seventies strangers, random
strangers from a phone book in Lisbon and thirteen years
before he died, and said, these are the people, but
don't tell him. It's going to be just a big surprise. Yeah,
and some people thought they were being conned. If I
did that and I died, everybody there be um, seventies
strangers each getting a one dollar bill. But I put

(29:58):
in my will that had to be like crisp from
the bank never circulated one dollar bills to make them
feel good. I thought you're gonna say it like a
roller quarters or something. That's another way to go. But
that's more than a dollar. Yeah, you're right, Um McNair ill.
Grin Fritz was a unsuccessful but wealthy composer and he said,
you know what, Metropolitan Opera of New York, I'll leave

(30:19):
you a hundred grand if after I die, you put
on this opera I've I've written. And the met said, yea,
we could use that money but nothings, which is like ouch, yeah,
but they said the music it was workable. That's not
like they said, this is awful. I think I guess
you just wentn't in their plan. Um, who else, Josh?
Who else do we have here? Onny Nermi? Yeah? Finished, businessman,

(30:44):
this is this is my favorite one. Um. He apparently,
late in life, made some friends at the rest home
where he was dying, and died, I imagine, and he said,
you know what, I'm gonna leave everybody here, Uh, seven
dred and eighty shares of a rubber boot company that
I imagine I had something to do with at some
point maybe, um. And that rubber boot company went on

(31:07):
to become cell phone giant Nokia, and all of those
people became millionaires. I imagine all of those people's children
or grandchildren became millionaires because I don't think Nocchia went
from a boot company to the cell phone biz like overnight. Um,
but it was still very nice. This is a good
story if you ask me, Uh, these are pretty cool.

(31:27):
Josh um ed Hedrick the inventor. Um, Well, I'm not
the inventor of the frisbee, but he's credited with perfecting
the modern frisbee. He wanted to be. He took it
out of its original square exactly. He worked for WAMO, obviously,
and he said, you know what, I want my ashes
to be molded into memorial versions of the frisbee and

(31:48):
sell those and use the money from those to open
up a frisbee museum. And then another guy, a Marvel
comic writer Mark Gruenwald, said, I would like my ashes
to be mixed with inc and be on a mickbook.
And when he died young at forty two, there were
four thousand inc and Ashes issues of Squadron Supreme printed. Yeah,

(32:09):
wouldn't you be disappointed if that was the one you
got printed in? Well, that was probably being Punisher. It
was probably his comic though. I still want to be
in the punished, Okay, I want to be in a
better comic and who else, Dusty Springfield? Shall we mention her?
Hers just kind of eat I guess it's kind of silly.
She had a cat named Nicholas, and Nickols had a

(32:31):
favorite meal, which was imported baby food. So she left
the singer of Son of a Preacher man Um. She said,
you know what, Um, Nicholas is gonna lay on my
nightgown for the rest of nickolas his life, and my
music is going to be played and lifetime supply that
cat food for Nicklas. Yeah. And then Leona Helmsley like

(32:53):
million to her dog for the care of her dog.
You can't actually leave money to an animal, Yeah, you
can like stipulating your will that this money is for
the care of this animal. Right, And she left her
a couple of grandkids nothing and then yeah, and then
there is the There was the tree that owns itself
in Athens. The elderly couple that died or the elderly

(33:16):
woman that died and left this piece of land apparently
set up a trust for the tree so that it
can never be cut down or removed. And actually, if
you drive along the street, you have to go around
the roundabout that built around the tree that owns itself again.
It's got a little placard and a little chain around it, yea.
And that tree grows up to the center of city Hall.

(33:36):
And that tree grew up to be roy Comb. I
got nothing else. I don't either. If you want to
read a fine article written by a young, strapping Charles W.
Bryant when he first came to how stuff works dot com,
just type how wills work into the handy search bar
at how stuff works dot Com. That, of course brings
up listener mail. All right, Josh, I know you're gonna

(33:58):
balk at this because we have another request from a
boyfriend trying to get his girl. No, no, no, I
feel so bad for Timmy though. Alright, alright, Timmy before
we read this, dude, if you don't get back in
touch with us and let us know what happened, we
will find you. Yeah, you're dead to me, even though
we can't find the other guy. We will find you
to me since too, Yeah, and since we mentioned it

(34:20):
other guy who we proposed, we don't like you anymore.
Just what happened there, dude, People are clamoring to know. Alright,
to my beloved Josh and Chuck and Jerry since two
thousand nine. Uh, let me skip ahead to the interesting
part um Jerry cracking up today. Guys have been a
big fan since two thousand nine. One big thing that

(34:41):
has changed since that time was I found an absolutely
brilliant girlfriend. She also loves you, guys. We would spend
our nights together falling asleep, listening stuff. You should know.
She would fill me in on bits I missed. It
sounds like a very sweet thing. Unfortunately, recently we were
having a rough time of things, sort of lost perspective

(35:01):
and the spark faded. Uh, let me go ahead and
tell you to me do the spark like that. Spark
always fades. You gotta have something else going on there.
Substantial Model Airplanes is a good one. So we both
am amicably agreed that it would be easier to split
after eighteen months together. And the best thing we both
do the same university. We are have the same courses

(35:25):
at times. He must be English or something. We still
chat a lot and I really miss her though, and
I know she misses me too. You don't know that, Timmy.
You're about to find out. We were great together and
just needed this time apart to sort out our heads
and commit back to one another. What I would like
to do, guys, is for you to say to Elaine,

(35:47):
would you please get back with Timmy? Go back out
with him. He's boyfriend again. I'm sorry girlfriend. I know
she'll be listening. It would be a great way of
me showing her how much I still care. Or you
could just talk to her. That's that's another thing, or
that he's watching her. I don't think I'll do any
more of these. Um. I love her. I want to
spend my future with her. I would be really grateful

(36:09):
for this. So that's the deal, Timmy. It's as much
love Elaine. Take him back or don't. Either way, Timmy,
Please let us know what happens so we can follow
up and tell people what happened with the ten Elaine
Socca and that is it. That is as dead as
Haiku and disco. We're not doing that anymore, never again. No,

(36:32):
all right, agreed? Okay, thanks a lot, Timmy. Good luck
to you forever. All right, Um, Chuck, are you okay
with that? No? I'm fine, because it just gets out
of hand and then you know, we're asking people out
on a first date all of a sudden, and hey,
can you tell my friend Joe to pick up the
tab every now and then. You know, it's just it's

(36:52):
I'm okay with that one. Okay, Yeah, that's fine. You
know how I feel about freeloaders. All right, Well, then
let's call for that and the email. Um, now we'll
do that something they'll send him anyway, okay, all right,
So if you know a story about a crazy will,
crazy stipulation in a will, I love that. I can't
get enough of them, So let's hear him, right, yeah,

(37:13):
real ones, are you? Yeah? Well, yeah, I don't make
them up, jerks. We want to hear it. You can
put it on Facebook, Stuff you Should Know, Facebook, Facebook
dot Com, slash Stuff you Should Know, s y s
K podcast. That's our Twitter handle, and you can send
us an email at stuff Podcast at how stuff works
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

(37:39):
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