When Fame Meets Inheritance:
ANNE HECHE’S LEGACY
a coma and passed away seven days later due to inhalation and thermal injuries as well as a sternum fracture. Unfortunately for Heche’s family, she passed without a will in place, which complicated matters significantly. Heche’s eldest son, Homer Heche Laffoon, filed a petition to be appointed administrator of her estate not long after her death. James Tupper, Heche’s
children.” Heche sent the email in 2011 when the couple was still together.
Unfortunately, the email was not legally binding, and a judge gave complete control of Heche’s estate to her son, Homer. The estate consisted of $110,000 in bank funds and uncashed checks as well as an estimated $400,000 in other assets. However, people continued to target Heche’s estate with massive lawsuits. In November 2022, the woman renting the home that Heche crashed into sued the estate for at least $2 million, then the homeowners filed their own lawsuit. A month later, a credit card company sued the estate for $36,000 in credit card debt. Like many other celebrity estate planning cases that make the news, this entire situation could have been avoided if Heche had created an estate plan.
ex-partner and father to her second child, argued that he could reject the petition as he believed Homer was not suitable due to his age and lack of income. Furthermore, Tupper provided an email written by Heche that left the estate in his hands. It read, “FYI In case I die tomorrow and anyone asks. My wishes are that all of my assets go to the control of Mr. James Tupper to be used to raise my children and then given to the
News of Anne Heche’s death stunned the entertainment world in August 2022. The 53-year-old actress who starred in “Donnie Brasco’’ and “Six Days Seven Nights’’ was driving her MINI Clubman when she crashed into a Los Angeles home. A fire broke out from the accident, and firefighters were unable to remove the car — or Heche — for over 45 minutes. Following the accident, Heche fell into
A BAD DISEASE AND LEARNING TO STAY IN YOUR LANE
There are many diseases in the world but none like the one I once had. What I used to have was a disease diagnosed as “dealitis,” which meant I could not pass up a deal. If no one else would buy into a deal that I thought was a good deal, then I bought it. (You will notice that “dealitis” and “dumb” both start with the letter D.) Because I had dealitis, I owned and operated between 6–7 businesses at one time. I couldn’t find a deal I didn’t like. I ended up owning multiple restaurants, manufacturing companies, a television station, a radio station, a motel, a convenience store, several real estate companies, a few commercial development companies, and dozens of retail outlets. I even owned a ladies’ dress shop. That was how bad I had the disease. Dealitis consists of the inability to focus on one business; instead, you are constantly chasing another deal to add to your portfolio of businesses you already own and operate.
Thankfully, through the therapy of losing money because I wasn’t paying attention to my core business, I was able to cure myself of dealitis and focus on my core business of owning and operating American Business Brokers & Advisors. But I have a confession to make. In August of this year, my team and I were invited to the first annual Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Magazine Conference in Atlanta to meet and present American Business Brokers & Advisors to the QSR people. Since this was the first conference, it was a huge success with sellout attendance. There were more people than there was space for the people. I noticed a lot of new restaurant concepts I hadn’t heard before. Being the curious person that I am, I began to ask questions about some of these new concepts. Having been in the restaurant business and owning more than 30-plus restaurants in an earlier life, I wasn’t paying attention and fell off the wagon. Yes, just like an alcoholic, I
found myself diving into this one restaurant concept I thought was a winner, and I could take it to the moon. I was asking them questions about the store layout, the annual average gross income, cost of goods, cost of labor, site selection, and how much it costs to buy the franchise and start up the concept. I even had the location picked out. Dealitis had reared its ugly head, and I was in deep. Fortunately, one of my colleagues at ABBA recognized I was getting blurry-eyed and infatuated with this new restaurant concept and pulled me aside, gave me a good shaking, looked me in the eye and said, “Wake up! Stay in your lane and continue to do what you do best — helping business owners prepare their businesses for sale and walking them through the process of selling their business. STAY IN YOUR LANE!” What a profound thing to say to me or someone who may experience the effect of dealitis and the thought of venturing off into a business they know nothing about.
2
WWW.TERRYMONROE.COM
800.805.9575
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator