A mistake in estate planning sparked a long fight between the heirs.
Audrey Hepburn memorabilia has been stalled in court for the last two years but her sons may have now reached an agreement, according to the Daily Mail in “Audrey Hepburn’s sons agree to split their late mother’s treasure trove of belongings, including costumes, jewelry, scripts and awards, after two-year legal dispute.”
Audrey Hepburn passed away in 1993, leaving behind memorabilia from her acting career, including some of the costumes and jewelry she wore in her roles.
The items have been the source of a long dispute between her two sons, because she specified in her estate plan that everything she owned should be split between those sons equally. However, she left no instructions on how the task would be accomplished.
The sons have agreed to submit the question to mediation and use that process to determine the distribution of particular pieces of memorabilia. However, this will not be the end of all battles concerning Hepburn’s estate, since a charitable fund she founded is now suing one of the son’s for interference with its affairs.
Hepburn’s mistake was not including some way for her son’s to resolve any disputes about who gets what in her estate plan. She could have made provisions for a mediator to resolve the disputes.
Reference: Daily Mail (March 9, 2017) “Audrey Hepburn’s sons agree to split their late mother’s treasure trove of belongings, including costumes, jewelry, scripts and awards, after two-year legal dispute.”
