Woman Gifts $15.5. Million to the “organizations that promote the creation, advancement and enjoyment of literature.”

On January 1, 2017, the New York Times reports that Amber Lightfoot Walker’s estate gifted millions of dollars to various cultural institutions including Lincoln Center Theater, the Morgan Library & Museum and the 92nd Street Y. According to the article, Amber Lightfoot Walker was a socialite with a passion for arts. What did her will say? What will these institutions do with the very generous donations? How can you insure that the person or charity you want to inherit from your estate actually does?

Probate lawyers and Florida trust attorneys know that having a solid estate plan in place before you pass away can be extremely beneficial. For one, if you pass away without a will, your estate will be distributed according to intestacy laws. Intestacy laws say that your heirs will inherit. Therefore, if Ms. Walker, would have passed away without a will, her heirs would have inherited her wealth. This means that the cultural institutions she wanted to give $15.5 million to probably would not have received that money. Ms. Walker’s will asked that her “two friends — the writer Steven M. L. Aronson and Robert Eddy Armstrong, former president of the Henry Luce Foundation — donate part of her estate to “organizations that promote the creation, advancement and enjoyment of literature.” Although her request probably could have been written more specifically, if she desired, it allowed her to distribute her estate as she wished. To read more about her generous gift to the arts and to learn what the organizations will do with the funds, click here.