World’s Most Expensive Number Plate

Great story in the Gulf News  here in Abu Dhabi a couple of days ago about a local guy who paid 25.2 million dirhams (over $US6.8 million) for the number “5″ car number plate at an auction held to raise funds for charity.

Not only did he buy the number 5 plate, but he also splashed out and bought number 55 for over $1.7 million and number 45 for $1.35 million. 

Now, there are a few points to take from this:

1. There’s plenty of cash floating around Abu Dhabi at the moment!

2. Auctioning number plates is a fantastic way to raise money for charity

3. This guy has used his success to leave a legacy in 2 ways - the number plates for his family to use and maybe to onsell in the future, and the money he paid for the charities to use to build a better future for those in need.

By the way, the auction was held at the Emirates Palace Hotel, apparently the most expensive hotel ever built at about $3 billion.  It’s just down the road from our place, almost our local! 

Interesting place, Abu Dhabi.  Plenty of successful people building legacies in ways I’ve never even thought of.

Cheers

Richard

What we all want from life …

Tell me something - what’s the most frustrating thing about the work you do? 

Maybe your boss?  How about one of your co-workers?  Do your customers or clients push you to the limit sometimes? 

Can I share with you the biggest frustration I found in all the years I worked as a lawyer?  Here it is: 

*Getting my clients to understand the security, peace of mind and opportunities they were missing out on by not getting their Estate Planning sorted out!* 

Mate, the number of people who make appointments with their lawyers to make a will, but either never keep the appointment or don’t follow through and actually get around to signing it, you just wouldn’t believe.   And they’re the people who have actually thought about doing something – the most basic thing, I’ll admit – about their Estate Planning.   

What about the millions of others who don’t even get as far as making the appointment!    But the important point here isn’t my frustration.  That’s something I got over. 

The real tragedy in all this is that all around the world, millions of people are taking risks with their future and the future of their families.   Huge risks that are completely avoidable if they only understood what Estate Planning is all about, how it works, what it can do for them, and what they need to do to get started! 

And you know what?  Getting started is really pretty simple. 

Like anything else you want to understand, the answer to mastering how estate planning can work for you is to *educate yourself*.  

Now here’s the really good news about the education you need to get: You don’t have to worry about Wills, Powers of Attorney, Living Wills, Will Trusts, Tax, none of that stuff.  That’s for your advisors to worry about.   

Which is just as well, because most of that technical stuff, I can tell you, would bore your arse off! 

You just need to educate yourself about what the possibilities and opportunities are for you and your family, for those you love, when you put Estate Planning to work for you.  That’s it.  

Now, does that sound manageable?  I hope so, because I want to help you get the Estate Planning education you need to give you the security and peace of mind we all want for our families.   

Wherever we are, and whatever we do, we’re all pretty much the same I reckon. Although I’m an Aussie, my family and I have lived in the Middle East for nearly six years now.  We’ve met fantastic people from all around the world, from different countries, different cultures, with different languages, different religions.  It’s been a life changing experience for us.  We’ve made friends who we’ll stay in touch with for life. 

And do you know what?  All the people we’ve met have the same hopes and aspirations as I do.  And, I’ll bet, the same ones as you: 

*We all want to live a happy, fulfilling life, and for our families to have the chance to do that too, and a little bit more.* That’s about it. 

Now, peace of mind goes a long way to giving us the “happy” part.  And planning for the future, whatever that might hold for you and your family, goes a long way to giving us the peace of mind. 

Let me know what you think. 

Richard 

Anna Nicole - Patron Saint of Estate Planners?

If there’s an estate planning attorney out there who hasn’t been rubbing his or her hands together as the latest Anna Nicole Smith saga’s been unfolding, then they need to find a new line of work.

 

Honestly, can you imagine anyone coming up with a scenario as bizarre as this one?  

Where one person – a celebrity blonde, as busty as she is feisty, a former exotic dancer married briefly to an elderly oil billionaire - would put estate planning in the spotlight in so many different ways? 

 

And for it to be truth, not fiction, is almost too good to be true.

During her short life, Anna Nicole’s exploits included:

-          Marrying at 17, to a 16 year old

-          Giving birth to her son Daniel the following year

-          Working as an exotic dancer in a
Houston nightclub, where she met J Howard Marshall, an elderly oil tycoon and billionaire 

-          Being the 1993 Playmate of the Year

-          Marrying Marshall in 1994, and becoming his widow just 13 months later

-          Being tied up for years in litigation involving her late husband’s death

-          Starring in movies and her own TV reality show, and becoming even more famous for her weird and wonderful TV appearances

-          Giving birth to a daughter in 2006, just three days before losing her son to an apparent drug overdose while he visited Anna Nicole and his new sister in hospital

-          Going through a “commitment ceremony” (not a wedding) with her lawyer, Howard Stern, in the
Bahamas less than 3 weeks after her son’s death

-          Witnessing claims to paternity of her daughter by Stern, former boyfriend Larry Birkhead, and then by Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband as well as 2 other former boyfriends!

-          Seeing the badly embarrassed Bahamas Immigration Minister sacked after photos of him with Anna became public

-          Finally, dying on 8 Feb with the official cause of death still “unknown”.

 

If that wasn’t enough complications, Anna Nicole left a badly outdated will which left everything to her dead son.  No thought to her new daughter, or how she’d be looked after, even though she knew the fight was on to claim her.

No doubt the legal brawling over the fate of her billionaire husband’s estate will go on for years.  Wouldn’t you think the fight over that estate would have tipped Anna off to the fact that getting things sorted out while you’re still alive is actually pretty important?  Apparently not.

Now (surely, finally) all those estate planning attorneys will have their doors beaten down by mums and dad everywhere, who have been putting off doing anything about their own estate planning, right?

Don’t bet on it.  There are still plenty of people out there who think “It’s not gonna happen to me!”  Or who are just too selfish to put their families first and do what they know needs to be done. 

Stupid or gutless, take your pick. 

Don’t be one of them.  Even if you haven’t got assets like Anna Nicole (and let’s face it, not many have!)  you can still be your family’s poster girl or boy for responsible Estate Planning.  All you have to do is get off your tush and learn what you need to do.

It’s not rocket science, but it does mean stepping out of your comfort zone and taking action.  Get on to it!

Richard