A Professor’s Final Act of Love

In Plato’s Symposium, seven guests at a party in Athens each give a speech in which they define love.  The guests come from different professional backgrounds, and this is reflected in their speeches.  For example, the retired military officer says that love is the willingness to fight to the death on the battlefield to save the lives of your brothers in arms, while the politician says nothing meaningful.  The comic playwright is so drunk that he cannot even make his speech the first time he is asked, but by the time he sobers up enough, he gives a speech where he explains how love is a cruel prank played on hapless mortals by the deities.  Socrates the philosopher posits a definition for love that he learned from his own teacher Diotyma.  She said that love is the desire to perpetuate.  People love their spouses, so they beget children.  Parents love their children, so they take care of them.  Teachers love their students, so they educate them and mentor them.  As the testator of a will, you have the right to use your property to show your love to anyone you choose, regardless of whether the person is a blood relative; the court only distributes your assets to your closest relatives if your will indicates this or if you do not have a will.  For help crafting an estate plan that represents your vision of love and generosity, contact a Dade City estate planning lawyer.

Love Is the Desire to Perpetuate

Cris Hassold was a professor of art history at New College of Florida.  She taught there for more than 50 years, until shortly before her death in 2020.  She did not marry or have children.  Instead, the closest people in her life were her found family of colleagues and students.  Many former students stayed in contact with her after they graduated, and some of them looked to her as a parental figure when their relationships with their own parents were strained.

Hassold must have thought carefully about how she could continue to help her former students even after she died, because she made 31 of them beneficiaries of her will.  She also listed five other beneficiaries who had never been her students; these were her blood relatives and childhood friends.  Her estate was valued at $2.8 million, and each beneficiary received between $26,000 and $500,000.  Her decisions about who got how much money depended on how long she had known the beneficiary and on each beneficiary’s financial needs, as far as Hassold knew about them.  One woman who had remained in contact with Hassold since she graduated from New College 25 years ago got the surprise of a lifetime when a check for $100,000 arrived in the mail from Hassold’s estate; she had not known that she was a beneficiary of Hassold’s will.

Contact a Florida Estate Planning Attorney About Estate Planning With Love

An estate planning attorney can help you draft a will that brings joy to the beneficiaries.  Contact The Law Office of Laurie R. Chane in Dade City, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

people.com/college-professor-left-former-students-the-majority-of-her-estate-11740287