If you ever want to hear about strange legal stories, than reading about estate law is an excellent place to start. Estate law often deals with large sums of money and that tends to create issues, such as intestate succession, that are interesting to read. Consider the recent case of a Nevada man named Walter Samasko Jr.
Samasko was a recluse who had not been seen in months. City officials went into his home to clear it out for sale. What they found surprised them! Samasko’s body was found in the garage. He had been dead for about a month. As they continued to clean out the house, officials found something even more surprising: $7.4 million in gold bars and coins. The gold was hidden all over the house in mis-labeled boxes and elsewhere.
Many people wanted to get a share of this fortune. They claimed to be related to Samasko. One even claimed to be a secret agent who had suffered from severe head trauma, which caused him to forget that he was related to Samasko. Officials had to investigate all of the claims of relation to Samasko. As it turns out, Samasko had one living relative who will receive all of the gold.
There is a lesson to be learned from this. If Samasko had an estate plan, then all of the false claims would not have mattered. His gold would have gone to who he said it should go to in the estate plan. Officials would not have had to spend months investigating the false claims.
Let The Zimmer Law Firm help you with these issues. Please call for a consultation to learn how to protect your gold.
- What You Need to Know about Elder Abuse - May 18, 2023
- Celebrate Older Americans Month This May - May 16, 2023
- Why Incapacity Planning Should Be Included in Your Estate Plan - May 11, 2023
