The ongoing feud of the National Enquirer heirs

Lawsuits, kidnapping charges, restraining orders, private jets to carry dogs around - yes, all of these things occasionally happen during the course of estate administration. Fortunately most of these issues can be prevented, but from time to time we hear about an estate gone so wrong that it is simply a nightmare. The $412 million estate of Generoso Pope, the founder of the National Enquirer, is one of those cases. His wife and son have been suing, accusing and tormenting each other since Mr. Pope died 25 years ago.

Click here to read a very good article that gives much more detail about this crazy circus of an estate, which appears on www.probatelawyerblog.com .

The problems arise because the majority of the estate was put into a trust for Mr. Pope's widow, intended for her to use during her lifetime then pass on to the kids when she dies. Mrs. Pope is one of the trustees of the trust, and her son alleges that she is wasting the trust by living too lavishly (this is where the jet for the dogs comes in). The son blew through his own $20 million inheritance and despite financial help from his mother, is unhappy with the fact that he didn't get more.

Nasty stuff, but it does illustrate some of the things that can go wrong when there is a trust in place. It also vividly illustrates just how costly and ugly things can get when there is an unexpectedly greedy beneficiary, which is very hard for anyone to plan around.

The attached photo accompanied the article on www.probatelawyerblog.com .