I stumbled on an interesting blog today, written by Francis Foster, professor of law at Washington University School of law on the topic of Trust Privacy. In her post, Professor Foster describes how Marlon Brando was able to maintain the one thing he sought most in his life, privacy, through the use of his estate planning trusts. She describes the feeding frenzy of the media when Brando's will was filed for probate back in 2004, and how the will devised his entire estate to his living trust, which was not part of the public record. That serves as a good reminder to the rest of us that when we put all the details of our final wishes into a will, we could be publicly airing our dirty laundry, the dis-function of our family relationships and other details for the whole world to see. Follow Brando's example, and use a living trust to preserve your family secrets.
