Estate Planning

Arthur Miller's Last Words

By Hull & Hull LLP

A Vanity Fair article published late last year writes on the relationship between playwright, Arthur Miller and his son, Daniel Miller who was born with Down Syndrome. Daniel was born in 1966 and institutionalized one week after being born and apparently while other family members kept in touch with Daniel, Miller rarely visited him or spoke of him.

When Miller died in February 2005, very few people knew of Daniel’s existence. Only one obituary notice mentioned Daniel and Miller’s own memoirs include no mention of Daniel.

Six weeks before his death, Miller made Daniel a full and direct heir equal to his other three children. While Daniel is not mentioned in the Will directly; separate trust documents, created the same day and sealed from public view, make Daniel an equal heir to Miller’s estate.

The article speculates that this was likely done contrary to legal advice as Miller’s bequest makes Daniel too wealthy to receive government assistance and a special trust was not created that would allow Daniel to inherit from the estate and continue to receive government assistance. In fact, Connecticut’s Department of Administrative Services issued a reimbursement claim to the estate for Daniel’s care since infancy and the estate is settling the claim.

Miller’s relationship with Daniel was complex and only Miller would be able to answer as to why he decided to make Daniel, who he did not publically acknowledge during his lifetime,an equal heir to his estate.

Until tomorrow,

Diane Vieira

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on April 29, 2008 (boomark / email).