Celebrity Estate Planning: Why Would Burt Reynolds Omit His Son from His Will?

What’s in Burt Reynolds’s Last Will and Testament?  By design, not his own son.

The Blast, which claims to have obtained a copy of the will,[1] has reported that Reynolds’s will included the following provision concerning his son, Quentin: “I intentionally omit him from this, my Last Will and Testament, as I have provided for him during my lifetime in my Declaration of Trust.” 

What’s going on here?  Likely, this is a pour-over will, an abbreviated type of will used to transfer those assets to a trust that weren’t already in trust.   Under such an arrangement, the trust would be the main vehicle of the estate plan, the chosen method to provide for heirs.

We don’t know the details of Reynolds’s trust, and this confidentiality is certainly one of the reasons Reynolds chose to use a trust in his estate plan.  Wills are subject to probate, typically a public process.  Though The Blast was able to get a copy of Reynolds’s will, it will not be able to get a copy of Reynolds’s trust. 

Confidentiality is only one of many good reasons to use a trust as the main vehicle of an estate plan.  Transferring assets by trust avoids court oversight and approval, and therefore represents a leaner and swifter method of transfer.  A trust can be utilized during the settlor’s lifetime, providing the settlor with property and investment management, and record-keeping assistance.  Additionally, management of, and control over, the assets can extend beyond the life of the trust settlor(s), allowing for continuing control, and a way to protect assets from waste and abuse.  These represent some of the benefits offered by trusts, and likely reasons why Reynolds provided for his son with a trust, rather than a will.

[1] https://theblast.com/burt-reynolds-will/