Celebrity Estate Planning - Estate of Wellington Burt - Episode 228
- Jenny Rozelle, Host of Legal Tea
- 14 hours ago
- 7 min read
Hey there, Legal Tea Listeners! This is your host, Jenny Rozelle. We are here for episode 228 –and we are circling back to an “estate planning of the rich and famous” episode where we chat about celebrities or high profile folks and their estate planning (or lack thereof!). Today’s episode is on Wellington Burt, which may not be a name a ton of people recognize (because he was literally born in the 1800s), but he was a guy who was absolutely loaded … he was a lumber tycoon … but ended up being remembered more for being petty than anything else (which we’ll get into when we talk about what happened after his death). As we normally do on these “rich and famous” people episodes, I like to give a quick crash course on him, as a person and all that jazz, first before we dive into his estate.
According to his Wikipedia page, Burt was born in 1831 in upstate New York. When he was 12, his dad died, so young Wellington basically had to step up and help run the family farm under his mother's guidance. He went to college for a couple years, but at 22, he decided he wanted some adventure. The guy literally became a sailor and worked on freighters traveling to Australia, Central and South America, and New Zealand. When he came back in 1857, he headed to Michigan and jumped right into the lumber business during what people called the "Green Gold Rush" Started making just $13 a month as a lumber camp worker, but within a month his boss liked what he saw in this tall, strong guy who knew how to give orders – doubled his pay and made him camp foreman. The guy was apparently a natural leader. Within a year, he'd started his own lumber company and by the early 1900s, Burt had become one of the eight wealthiest men in the entire United States, with money not just from lumber but also iron mining, railroads, salt mines, and banking.
Now, personality-wise, this is where it gets interesting. Burt was described as a curmudgeon, and locals either liked and respected him or disliked and even despised him. But here's the thing – he wasn't just a grumpy rich guy. There was a heart in there somewhere! During his lifetime, Burt paid for most of the cost of Saginaw High School's Manual Training Building and the City Auditorium. He also gave liberally to the YWCA, a Home for the Aged, and a Women's Hospital. So he could be generous when he wanted to be. But man, Burt could hold a grudge. There's a famous story about how he had originally planned to leave millions to the city of Saginaw, Michigan, but when City Assessor Charles Spindler hiked his personal property assessments and made it stick legally, Burt amended his will to strike out all the city bequests he'd planned.
On the family front, Burt married Sarah Torrance in 1860 and had two sons and four daughters, but after Sarah died in 1867, he then married Armine Mary Richardson in 1869. But by the end of his life, he was living alone in his mansion with just his servants, completely estranged from friends and family. They nicknamed him "The Lone Pine of Michigan." Burt ended up dying in 1919 at age 87. But the story people really remember is what came after his death – that infamous estate plan where he basically said "nobody gets my money until you're all long gone." Whether it was revenge for family feuds or just the final act of a bitter old man, we'll never really know. But historians note his legacy today is mixed: seen as both a vindictive old man and a generous benefactor. So, we’ll let you be the judge of that today – let’s shift to his estate plan now.
According to Pure Saginaw website, when he died was the 8th wealthiest person in the United States and the 2nd wealthiest person specifically in Michigan, with Henry Ford taking 1st person. So, when he passed away, of course people were wondering if he had an estate plan and what it looked like – well, I can confirm he DID have an estate plan, and my goodness – did he have an estate plan! He had a Will (a Last Will and Testament) that included a very, very bizarre setup. His Will set up instructions that created a Trust (called a Testamentary Trust) to hold his money. The centerpiece was what he called a "spite clause." Yes … a “spite clause.”
According to ABC News, the Will stipulated that his estate was NOT to be distributed until "21 years after [the death of] my last surviving grandchild [who was alive] at the time of my death" And if you are curious about the legal language, it is actually a bit of a nod to something called the Rule Against Perpetuities – which is something the Bar Exam LOVES to test on because it is so annoyingly confusing, but it is basically a legal doctrine designed to create a cut-off date so estates do not continue endlessly. Burt basically pushed that rule to its absolute limit. If you really think about his Will for a second – he essentially said "nobody currently alive in my family gets this money." It was designed to skip over his kids and grandkids entirely and go straight to descendants who were not even born yet!
But but but, he did NOT leave them completely empty-handed, but what he did give them was almost insulting. According to Find a Grave, his children got an annual distribution of just $1,000 – the exact same amount he left some of his staff members like his cook, and housekeeper There was one favorite son who got more, and one daughter he was mad at who got absolutely nothing. But here is a bit of a kicker – his secretary got $4,000 annually, which was more than most of his own children. I’d be remiss, though, if I didn’t mention that he DID die in the early 1900s, so these amounts did feel “more” than they do now – but still,…yeah.
When his estate administration first began, along with his Will came 42 pages of detailed personal grievances attached. Forty-two pages! Can you imagine sitting there reading all the reasons your dead father was mad at you? All the details of it are not public knowledge, but it is clear there were some serious family feuds happening. Plus, as I briefly mentioned earlier, there’s the story about the property assessor – in 1915, Burt built a fence around his mansion, which triggered a property tax reassessment. The county wanted to raise his property taxes. He was so furious that he immediately removed every state-run organization from his will. So his spite was not just directed at family – if you crossed him, you were out.
Of course, the family was NOT going to take this lying down. They challenged the Will right after he died, and in 1920 they found a loophole – part of the estate consisted of iron leases in Minnesota, and Minnesota had a law that prohibited trusts lasting that long. That portion, amounting to about $5 million, was distributed to his descendants. I am sure he was rolling in his grave when that happened! Then in 1961, another $720,000 was taken from the trust in a settlement filed by heirs. So they managed to chip away at it, but the bulk DID remain locked up, just sitting there growing for decades.
The clock FINALLY ran out in a pretty dramatic way. His last surviving grandchild, Marion Lansill, died in November 1989, according to Find a Grave. That officially started the 21-year countdown. Then, in May 2011, which was the 21 years and a few months after Marion’s death, the money was finally distributed … 91 years after Burt died. WILD! By then, the estate was worth around $110 million, and it was split between twelve descendants ranging from great-grandchildren all the way through great-great-great-grandchildren. The youngest was 19 years old and the oldest was 94. None of these family members even remembered Burt – with the oldest one being only two when Burt died. They got this massive windfall from a man they had never known, all because he wanted to make absolutely sure the people he was actually mad at never saw a dime. His revenge was complete. The people he was actually mad at never saw any of the real fortune. It's pretty much the ultimate "I'll show you" move from beyond the grave. Whether you call it brilliant or bitter, you have to admit – the guy knew how to hold a grudge.
So what can we take away from Wellington Burt's unique estate plan? Well, here's the thing – it's actually a perfect example of a fundamental principle in estate planning: it's your money, and you get to decide what happens to it. Now, was Burt being vindictive? Absolutely. Was he petty? Oh yeah. Did he prioritize his servants over his own children? Sounds like it. But here's what's wild – it was legal. He had every right to structure his estate plan exactly how he wanted, and, besides the little loophole thing discovered in Minnesota, the Courts upheld it for nearly a century. That's the power of proper estate planning. Whether people think your decisions are fair, reasonable, or even sane does not really matter – what matters is that your wishes are clearly documented and legally sound.
Burt's Will survived multiple legal challenges precisely because it was so meticulously crafted. Now, I am not saying you should go out and spite your entire family from beyond the grave, but the lesson here is that estate planning is deeply personal. Maybe you want to leave everything to charity. Maybe you want to skip a generation. Maybe you have specific conditions about how money should be used. Whatever your reasons –you have the freedom to make those calls. The key is working with good legal counsel to make sure your plan is airtight and actually accomplishes what you want. Because if there is one thing Wellington Burt proved, it is that a well-written estate plan can make your wishes stick long after you're gone, whether people like it or not.
Alrighty, let’s wrap this one up and shift to a sneak peak at next week. Next week we’re back to a “cautionary tale” episode where we talk about real-life clients, real-life cases that I, or my office, have worked on -or- maybe they are just generally good things to know/be aware of so you don’t slip up and turn into a cautionary tale one day. In next week’s episode, we are going to talk about kind of a “survivor’s guide” for family or a spouse after passing away – I am seeing a lot of talk and seeing in my own practice a lot of scrambling going on after someone passed away, so we are going to talk about what you can do proactively to set your spouse or family up for success, especially if you do most of the financial/legal stuff. Alrighty, Legal Tea Listeners, that is it for today - until next week, take care and be well!
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