Taxation & Estate Planning

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

I am what might be called an "old school" or "first generation" videogame player. I owned an Atari 2600 as a kid, and spent a lot of time at arcades and the like playing games like Pacman and Galaga. I still play a little, with my 7-year-old daughter. She owns a Nintendo DS (although she's only allowed to use it on long car trips), and I recently bought her a new game entitled Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I was surprised to learn that the game actually has an estate planning/probate connection. From the Wikipedia description:

The game opens with Professor Layton and [his assistant] Luke driving to the town of St. Mystere by request of Lady Dahlia, widow of the late Baron Reinhold. The Baron has left in his last will and testament that whoever solves the mystery of the Golden Apple would inherit the Baron's fortunes, and several people have attempted and failed. The two enter the town, and find that most of the population is fond of puzzles and brain teasers, both which Layton and Luke are adept at solving.

Players then have to solve over 120 brain teasers. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Full post as published by Death and Taxes Blog on February 18, 2009 (boomark / email).