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Step Siblings Fight over Audrey Hepburn's Storage Locker

It’s been more than 22 years since Audrey Hepburn’s death, and her two sons still can’t divide up her belongings. The late “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” star’s children, Sean Ferrer from her first marriage and Luca Dotti from her second marriage, are fighting over a storage unit filled with posters, photos, costumes, awards and other memorabilia, according to TMZ.

The New York Post reported this story in a recent article titled "Audrey Hepburn's kids still fighting over her stuff."

When Audrey Hepburn passed away she owned a storage locker that contained many of the pieces of memorabilia she had collected over the years during her acting career. She instructed that her two sons, each by different fathers, should split the contents of the locker equally between them.

That was over two decades ago and the personal items still sit in the same storage locker awaiting division by the sons because they cannot agree who gets what.

A couple of different issues might be in play here.

First, because the sons have different fathers and have an age difference of 10 years, there might be very little love lost between them. It is not unusual in blended families for step-siblings to argue over a parent's estate.

Another issue might be that Hepburn's personal effects are likely to have value to collectors. Each brother could be insisting that he should get the items that are perceived to have more value on the market.

Whenever blended families are involved it is important that estate plans are as detailed as possible. As this case shows it is not always a safe assumption that the children will be able to agree about dividing the estate in the absence of clear instructions.

Contact an experienced estate planning attorney to make sure you address all blended family issues.

Reference: New York Post (May 27, 2015) "Audrey Hepburn's kids still fighting over her stuff."

If you like more information on how to create an estate plan involving a blended family, please visit our website.

Inheritance Scam with a Twist

A Brooklyn woman scammed $300,000 from her friends by telling them she had inherited a boatload of cash but needed their dough to pay off the estate’s taxes and liens, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Have you heard of the standard inheritance scam? A scammer pretends to be an attorney or estate agent. They tell a potential victim that the victim has inherited a large fortune from an estranged or long lost relative. However, before the victim can get the inheritance, the scammer claims that the victim must cough up large sums of money to pay off taxes or other debts that the estate holds.

Plot twist! A woman in Brooklyn is alleged to have turned this standard inheritance scam around.

She forged bank documents to make it look like she had received an inheritance for $13 million in cash. She then went to her friends and convinced some of them that to get the cash she needed money to pay the estate's taxes and debts.

She is alleged to have conned $300,000 from up to ten people.

The New York Post has more on the story in a recent article titled "Woman busted in $300K inheritance scam: DA."

Avoiding inheritance scams is easy.

If someone you do not know asks for money concerning an inheritance, especially if it seems too good to be true, consult with an estate attorney before spending any money.

If the person objects to you receiving the advice of an attorney, run away!

No legitimate estate administrator would object to an attorney being consulted.

In this particular case, the attorney would have told the victims that any taxes or other debts could have been paid out of the cash in the estate, if in fact the inheritance were real.

Reference: New York Post (April 14, 2015) "Woman busted in $300K inheritance scam: DA."

Suggested Key Words: Inheritance, Estate

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