Idaho Law Blog
By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney
Alex Trebek, the host of the game show Jeopardy recently died. He hosted the Jeopardy game show from 1984 until his death in November of 2020. It is estimated that his net worth is between $50 – $75 million. While there isn’t much information yet about his estate planning, whether he had a last will and testament or whether he had a trust or a series of trusts, one thing is certain. Trebek was generous.
Years before his death, Trebek donated 62 acres of land to Los Angeles for a park. The name of the park is known as the Trebek Open Space. It was gifted by Trebeck to the city of Los Angeles in 1998 and is described as a sunny, well-established network of fire roads, trails, and other spaces that can be used by hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians.
This experience has lessons in estate planning for us all. One of the major lessons we can learn from Trebeck is that you don’t necessarily need to wait until you die to make gifts to either the people or the causes that are important to you.
I provided this counsel to many of my clients. Afterwards, these clients return to me and express their gratitude. They chose to give a specific gift to a specific person and were then able to watch that person enjoy the gift. They were able to enjoy seeing the pleasure this gift provided to the person they gave it to.
Most people don’t have any type of an estate plan or a plan for gifting their property while they are alive, because they don’t know where or how to begin. We make the process as simple as possible by providing a free Estate Planning Questionnaire, that we can either email to you or you can download from our web site. This is a pdf document that you can type directly into and save to your computer.
Once you have it filled out, you can then email it back to me and we can schedule a free 30-minute consultation to review your information and to discuss the things that are important to you when it comes to your own estate plan. This gives us the ability to answer your specific questions and to talk with you about the options that are available to you both while you are alive and after you pass away.
We encourage you to contact us today so we can answer your questions and help you get started on the path of completing your own estate plan. Trebek was able to experience a great deal of joy in his life because he did have a plan which included making gifts while he was alive to causes important to him. We are confident that we can help you do the same.
ENLIST AN IDAHO ESTATE PLANNING ATTORNEY TO HELP YOU
If you have any questions about your estate or how to simplify your plans for your family and loved ones, we can help. Call us toll free at 877-232-6101 or 208-232-6101 for a free consultation with Lane Erickson and the Racine Olson team of estate planning attorneys in Pocatello. You can also email Lane Erickson directly at lane@racineolson.com. We will answer your questions and will help you solve your Pocatello estate planning problems. I have helped numerous clients create their own customized estate plans and I’m confident that I can help you too.