Archive for Movies Relating to Estate Planning
MOVIE REVIEW: SUMMER HOURS (L’heure d’été)(A Family Philanthropy Opportunity Missed)
Summer Hours is a French film available with English sub-titles. Although it is a very French film, the estate planning issues which play out are universal.
The family which is the subject of this film is comprised of Helene, the family matriarch, and her adult children, two sons and a daughter. Juliette Binoche plays the daughter and is the most recognizable name in this fine ensemble cast. Helene lives in a beautiful, large home in a small village outside Paris. She has devoted her life to preserving the legacy of her uncle, a famous artist. The home is filled with valuable paintings, antiques and other works of art. The movie title refers to the times the family spends together on summer vacations at Helene’s villa.
On the occasion of her 75th birthday, the children and grandchildren all gather at the estate to celebrate. Helene has recently published a well-received book of her uncle’s work. The family gets along in a genial, but superficial manner. Helene takes a few minutes to talk with her eldest son about her testamentary wishes although she refuses to visit a lawyer to prepare a formal estate plan. The other children are not involved in this discussion.
After Helene’s death, the children meet to discuss disposition of the family wealth. The eldest son wishes to preserve the ancestral home and its treasures for family visits and for future generations of the family to enjoy. He lives in Paris and can look after the estate. However, his brother is moving to China and his sister lives in New York. Their goals are not the same and they vote (2-1) to sell everything. At that point, a lawyer does become involved and advises about the heavy taxes which will be due. Accordingly, some of the treasures are donated to the Musee d’Orsay. The film ends on a wistful note as the children go their separate ways and the eldest son and his wife view their mother’s desk and chair in a sterile setting in the museum. Although sad, the film is not depressing. It is beautifully done, with fine acting, gorgeous scenery and a universal theme – the conflict between preserving the past, the cultural heritage and memories of a family, and the relentless pull of the present and future.
What stands out for me is what wasn’t done. And I am not just talking about Helene’s failure to consult a lawyer to do comprehensive estate planning. As the film ends and the siblings go off in their different directions, the viewer senses that there will be no more “summer hours” for this family. However, if the family had ever sat down together to talk about family values and philanthropy and to make philanthropy an important family business, they may have been able to continue to spend quality family time together into the foreseeable future. The interaction in this family is the typical, surface interaction of many families today. There is a reluctance to discuss deeply held values or to develop a common family mission, which leads to a lack of authentic trust among the family members.
If instead Helene had started a family foundation, perhaps requiring all heirs to participate in a family council which would decide foundation business, the family may have agreed upon a common mission that would keep them strong and together well into the future. Perhaps a fund could have been established to pay for the family travel expenses to attend foundation meetings, so that every family member could attend regardless of their location or circumstances. Then, no matter whether or not this particular home was sold, preserving the family’s legacy and developing a common philanthropic mission could have set the stage for this family to spend many more “summer hours” together. This opportunity would not have been missed if the family had spent time with a legacy oriented estate planning attorney.
BRING ME A PEN AND PAPER!
(Deathbed Wills)
Writing a Will on one’s death bed is often featured in the movies, but is a bad idea in real life. In “Power of the Press”, a 1943 film written by Samuel Fuller, the publisher of a New York newspaper, is stricken with remorse after a long time friend’s editorial lambasts the muckraking journalism of his newspaper. He decides to force out the managing editor who is leading the newspaper astray. However, the managing editor has the publisher assassinated as he begins a major speech to outline the new change in policy.
While the publisher is lying on his deathbed, he summons his trusted secretary to bring him a piece of paper and a pen and he writes out a Will leaving his controlling interest in the newspaper to his old friend who had criticized him. That old friend was running a small town weekly newspaper in Nebraska. The intrepid secretary tracks him down and brings him back to New York to confront the ruthless editor. They show the editor the handwritten Will. At first, he permits the reformist to have the illusion of control, but as real changes are attempted, he obtains a court injunction declaring the handwritten Will to be void. The small town newspaper man and the secretary do not have the funds to fight this injunction, so other tactics are required.
This movie is more well known for its somewhat preachy (remember this was war time) defense of freedom of the press. The estate planning lesson is that in the movies, as in real life, a deathbed Will is not the best planning tool.
MOVIE REVIEW: “EMMA” AND SECOND MARRIAGE PLANNING
We previously reviewed the Frank Capra film “You Can’t Take It With You”. Another movie with estate planning overtones is the 1932 classic “Emma”, starring Marie Dressler in an Oscar-nominated role. Emma is the story of an elderly housekeeper who cares for a motherless family, actually raising the youngest, Ronnie, when his mother dies in childbirth. The entire family is very dependent upon her. The father, Frederick Smith, becomes very wealthy. The children grow up in wealth and, with the exception of Ronnie, become spoiled brats.
When Emma leaves for her first vacation ever, Mr. Smith accompanies her to the train station, buys an extra ticket for Niagara Falls and proposes. The two have a short period of happiness before Mr. Smith’s heart gives out and he dies. In his Will, Mr. Smith leaves all of his money to Emma with the understanding that she take care of the children, whom he believed would squander every cent if left unsupervised. The children assume Emma is going to take all of the money for herself. In order to break the Will, they accuse her of murdering their father and Emma actually is put on trial for murder. Ronnie is away hunting in the wilds of Canada and doesn’t learn what is going on until after the trial is underway.
Frederick Smith incorrectly assumed that because Emma was like a member of the family, the children would readily accept her. Even with a “pretty good for the movies” lawyer, Mr. Smith was unable to avoid a family tragedy with his estate planning. Instead of leaving his entire fortune to Emma, perhaps if he had left his assets to the children in individual, lifetime protected trusts, he could have avoided their resentment. He could have named Emma as either a trustee or co-trustee and still accomplished his main objective of protecting the children from their spendthrift ways. The tragedy that ensues exemplifies the need for extra special care in estate planning when there are blended families and second marriages involved.
Unfortunately, Emma is not presently available on DVD. Try to catch it when it next plays on TCM. The movie is extremely well-acted, genuinely touching and not at all outdated. You don’t have to be an estate planning attorney to enjoy it!
