Protecting The Corleone Assets: An Estate Plan For Michael Corleone (And The Rest Of Us).
The Basics
Here is an estate planning checklist of items every estate plan should include*:
Will: A document directing who and how your property will be given after your death.
Trust: Financial plans that protect and manage your property while alive and after your death can prevent the need for court proceedings.
Durable Power-of-Attorney: A document that allows you to name someone to make financial decisions for you if you become disabled.
Healthcare Proxy: A document where you name someone to make healthcare decisions for you if you cannot do so.
Living Will: A document that states your wishes regarding whether life-extending medical measures should be taken to prolong your life if you have a terminal illness and are permanently incapacitated or unconscious.
Guardianship designations: If you are a single parent, this determines who will take care of your offspring.
Life Insurance: At the very least, get enough life insurance to cover your funeral expenses. Gofundme.com, although great, should be the last resource your family goes to raise money to bury you.
*Changes may occur in this area of law. The information provided is brought to you as a public service and is intended to help you better understand the law. It is not intended to be legal advice regarding your particular problem or to substitute for the advice of a lawyer.
The Corleone Family: Michael Corleone
We all know Michael Corleone as one of the most iconic mob bosses of all time. As the head of the Corleone crime family, he was known for his cunning, ambition, and ruthlessness. With his cunningness and intelligence, he would have created an estate plan for the family.
The Corleone estate plan was designed to be ironclad, legally sound, and utterly impenetrable. It would be a blueprint that could be passed down through the generations of the Corleone family, ensuring that their wealth and power would remain intact even after Michael was gone.
The Family Trust
The cornerstone of the Corleone estate plan was a "trust-and-retain" agreement. This agreement stated that all assets acquired by the Corleone family were to be placed in a trust, the proceeds remaining in the trust until Michael specified. This way, regardless of what happened to Michael or the family, the assets would stay within the family.
The agreement also stated that all assets acquired by the family during Michael's lifetime would remain in their possession, even if the family incurred debts or ran into financial difficulty. This was to ensure that any creditors or legal opponents of the Corleone family could not touch their assets.
In addition, the Corleone estate plan included provisions for splitting inheritance amongst the family's members and for the continued operation of the Corleone crime family.
Micheal utilized both a revocable and irrevocable trust for the family estate plan.
The Pour Over Will
A pour-over will is a legal document ensuring an individual's remaining assets automatically transfer to a previously established trust upon death.
Although Michael is 100% legit, it would be better for him to have assets in his name. Thus, whatever assets he did accumulate would transfer to the established family trust with the creation of a pour-over will.
Life Insurance
Even living a 100% legit lifestyle, everyone dies. Even Jesus! With this knowledge, Michael took out multiple whole life and term life policies on all of his family members, designating the trusts as the beneficiary of the policies. Although Michael is legit, he knows that life insurance can be essential for someone working a high-risk job where the likelihood of an accident or untimely death increases. Here are a few reasons why:
Protecting loved ones: If someone with a high-risk job were to pass away unexpectedly, life insurance could help protect their loved ones from financial hardship. The death benefit paid out by the policy can help cover funeral expenses, outstanding debts, and ongoing living expenses.
Peace of mind: Knowing they have a life insurance policy can give someone working a high-risk job greater peace of mind. They may feel more secure in their career, knowing that their family will be taken care of if something happens to them.
He also knew that it would be best for the family that the trusts were the beneficiaries of all policies. There are several potential benefits to naming a trust as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy. Here are a few:
Control over distribution: If a trust is named as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, the policyholder can specify how and when the proceeds will be distributed to the beneficiaries. This can be useful in cases where the beneficiaries may need to be more capable of managing a large sum of money or where the policyholder wants to ensure that the funds are used for a specific purpose.
Protection of assets: Naming a trust as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy can help protect the proceeds from the claims of creditors or lawsuits. This is because the profits are no longer considered part of the policyholder's estate and are owned by the trust.
Tax planning: Depending on the type of trust used, naming a trust as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy can help minimize the tax liability associated with the policy. For example, if the trust is structured as an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT), the proceeds may be excluded from the policyholder's estate for estate tax purposes.
Privacy: When a trust is named as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, the proceeds are distributed privately rather than through probate court. This can help keep the distribution of the proceeds confidential.
Flexibility: A trust can be a flexible beneficiary, allowing the policyholder to change the distribution of the proceeds as their circumstances change. This can be useful in cases where the policyholder wants to ensure that the proceeds are used in the most effective way possible to benefit their loved ones.
It's important to note that there are also potential drawbacks to naming a trust as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, such as increased complexity and the cost of setting up and maintaining the trust. However, for the Corleone Family, the benefits of using a trust as a beneficiary outweigh these potential drawbacks.
In conclusion, Micheal and his consigliere lawyer created the Corleone estate plan with provisions for splitting inheritance amongst the family's members for the continued operation of the Corleone crime family and charity giving. These provisions ensured that Michael's legacy would never be forgotten, significantly decreased the likelihood of his family losing their wealth through frivolous spending and financial crisis, and ensured that they always had the money to buy politicians and for hits.
