Dying intestate is an expensive mistake. When William E. Perrine passed away without a will on February 6, 2024, he left behind millions in investment accounts, adult children from a previous marriage, and a wife who wasn't listed as a beneficiary. What followed was a bitter legal war that proves skipping estate planning guarantees chaos.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals ultimately handed Nancy Bobo Perrine half of a multi-million-dollar fortune. If you think your estate plan handles itself or that leaving things to chance will work out for your kids, this case study shatters that illusion.
The High Cost of Skipping a Will
William, known as Bill, held two Schwab investment accounts worth roughly $2.33 million. He had named his four adult children as transfer-on-death beneficiaries on those accounts. Under normal circumstances, those funds bypass probate entirely and land directly in the hands of the designated beneficiaries.
Except Bill didn't leave a will, and he didn't secure a prenuptial agreement when he married Nancy in October 2015.
That single omission opened the floodgates for state intestacy laws and archaic dower rights to override his clear transfer-on-death intentions. Nancy argued, and the courts agreed, that Kentucky law entitled a surviving spouse to half of the surplus personal property when someone dies intestate.
Bill kept full control over those accounts during his lifetime. He could cash out, change beneficiaries, or close them whenever he wanted. Because he retained that control, the courts treated the accounts as part of his estate's broader financial picture under specific statutory protections for spouses.
When Transfer on Death Designations Fail
Most people assume naming someone a beneficiary on a bank or brokerage account is bulletproof. It usually is. But marriage changes legal baselines overnight.
When you get married, your state grants your spouse certain automatic statutory rights to your property. You can't just bypass a spouse completely through informal account designations without proper legal scaffolding, such as a signed prenuptial or postnuptial agreement.
Bill's children discovered this the hard way. They watched a lower court—and later the appellate court—reject their argument that the transfer-on-death rules should completely trump marital property laws. The courts ruled that the children failed to overcome legal presumptions regarding assets transferred or managed right before death, including $126,000 in gifts distributed to children and grandchildren shortly before Bill passed away.
Real Lessons for Your Own Estate
People procrastinate on estate planning because it feels morbid or complicated. Cases like this show why procrastination destroys wealth.
If you're blending families, second marriages require extreme legal clarity. Bill and Nancy reconnected in 2007 after first meeting back in 1952. They married late in life, brought separate adult children into the picture, and simply never sat down to talk about how their separate and combined assets would be handled.
They left their financial destinies up to a courtroom judge.
If you want to protect your children or ensure your spouse receives exactly what you intend, verbal agreements and quiet assumptions do nothing. You need concrete legal instruments.
Talk to an estate attorney today. Draft a clear will, establish a living trust if your asset structure demands it, and make sure your beneficiary designations align perfectly with your state laws and marriage contracts. Otherwise, your family spends years in court fighting over the money you worked a lifetime to build.
