What About Steve Jobs's Estate Planning?

Now that Steve Jobs has died there is speculation in the news regarding what place in technology ingenuity Apple, Inc. will play in the future. A less public issue of speculation is what will happen to Mr. Jobs's estate. Mr. Jobs during his life has been private regarding his philanthropy endeavors. Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs's widow, has very quietly been involving herself with education issues, women's issues, and other philanthropic causes. Two organizations founded by Ms. Powell Jobs are College Track and Emerson Collective. Both organizations strive to help individuals help themselves. Most likely, Ms. Powell Jobs will continue using Mr. Jobs's estate to further philanthropic causes important to both Ms. Powell Jobs and her deceased husband, Steve Jobs.

From our perspective as estate planners, the critical point is that Mr. Jobs seems to have done his estate planning right. We can say this because so little is being said (can be said) about it in the news. It seems everything has been done privately, confidentially, and competently. No news in estate planning is good news.

Here is an article with the Wall Street Journal touching on this issue.

Unique Way Of Sharing Wealth During Life

Jennings Osborne died this past Wednesday, July 27, 2011. He was the founder of the Arkansas Research Medical Testing Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. With the money he made from his testing center, Mr. Osborne turned to philanthropy. Mr. Osborne would host free tailgate parties before University of Arkansas Razorbacks' football games. He would sponsor fireworks displays. But the thing he became famous for was creating Christmas-light displays.

Mr. Osborne started his Christmas-light displays with his own home. In 1993, his neighbors sued saying his three million lights, two 80-foot Chrstimas-tree-shaped masts, and other Christmas paraphernalia was a nusance to the neighborhood. He lost. But this did not stop him. Instead, he began creating big Christmas displays elsewhere like the governor's mansion in Little Rock, Arkansas, former President Jimmy Carter's home in Plains, Georgia, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and Elvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.

Here is a nice obiturary article from the Wall Street Journal written by Stephen Miller regarding Jennings Osborne.

See us here for information regarding estate planning.