High Drama: Estate Planning Anna Nicole Smith Style
A Conversation With Horace Cooper, Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason University
Just as the trials and tribulations of Hollywood’s celebrity blondes may make for good television drama, they make for even better legal lessons. Such is the case with the ongoing legal dispute between the late Anna Nicole Smith and the estate of her former husband, octogenarian billionaire J. Howard Marshall.
Preceding her death, Anna Nicole sued to turn her marriage to Marshall into a sizable bequest. Upset that Marshall’s entire fortune was left to his son, E. Pierce, she sought legal recourse in multiple courts before the case, Marshall v. Marshall, made headlines at the U.S. Supreme Court. The High Court’s decision, as well as the outcome of ongoing court proceedings, will have a lasting impact on all of us.
That’s because, according to Horace Cooper, assistant professor of law at George Mason University, Anna Nicole’s “[t]urning what normally would be a state matter – a probate dispute in the state of Texas – into a federal case was both audacious in its creativity and alarming in its consequences.”
Recently, Mr. Cooper joined CFIF Corporate Counsel & Senior Vice President Renee Giachino to discuss Smith’s “forum shopping” and why average Americans should care about the outcome of this saga.
Click on the link below to listen to the interview originally heard on "Your Turn - Meeting Nonsense With Commonsense" on WEBY 1330 AM, Northwest Florida's talk radio. ...[Listen to the interview here]