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For anyone trying to plan their finances for old age and beyond, the news that an American hotel tycoon has left ฃ6 million to her pet dog and nothing to two of her grandchildren is sure to have got the blood boiling. But Leona Helmsley, also known as the Queen of Mean, is by no means the first mega-rich person to echo George Orwell’s famous line from Animal Farm – four legs good, two legs bad.

For anyone trying to plan their finances for old age and beyond, the news that an American hotel tycoon has left ฃ6 million to her pet dog and nothing to two of her grandchildren is sure to have got the blood boiling.

But Leona Helmsley, also known as the Queen of Mean, is by no means the first mega-rich person to echo George Orwell’s famous line from Animal Farm – four legs good, two legs bad.

Indeed, Ms Helmsley’s bequest might be considered parsimonious when compared to that of the late Countess Carlotta Leibenstein.

Having passed away in 1991, the uber-rich Countess’s last will and testament bequeathed her entire $80 million fortune to her dog, Gunther III.
It’s not clear how Gunther III felt, several years later, about having to share his good luck with his one and, pet, only offspring, Gunther IV, but word has it Gunther IV continues to live in the lap of luxury, enjoying the services of a personal maid and chauffeur, and access to his own custom-built swimming pool.

Another American heiress with a thing for dogs was Doris Duke.

Born in 1912, Ms Duke was the only child of tobacco and electric energy tycoon, James Buchanan Duke. On his death in 1925, Doris inherited a cool $100 million (equivalent to about $1 billion today).

Doris eventually died in 1980, leaving virtually all of her fortune to a charitable foundation. But she still managed to find a spare $100,000 to put into a trust which she set up specially to care for her beloved pet dog.

Back in Europe, in 2000 an unnamed Danish woman of 83 years was reported to have left $60,000 to Jimmy, Trunte, Fifi, Trine, Grinni and Gigi.

No, they weren’t her children or grandchildren, but six chimpanzees at Copenhagen Zoo. A lawyer was even despatched to the zoo to read the will aloud to the chimps in their cage, wryly commenting after that none of the six had disputed it.

One will that may have caused the fur to fly is that of Catherine Olberg. Ms Olberg, who died aged 74, left her home and all of her possessions entirely to her pet dogs and cats. Elsewhere, bears in a Swiss zoo have been the lucky recipients of a small fortune, while a Cuban parakeet and a cocker spaniel were once given ฃ3,000 to share, a bequest that was challenged unsuccessfully by the deceased’s relatives.

The legal status of such pet bequests remains cloudy. In the USA, courts now generally agree that pets can only be named in wills as indirect beneficiaries of trusts set up in their name. Even so, it took until 2005 for one American state, Hawaii, finally to pass a law allowing animal lovers to leave money in a trust for the care of their dog, cat, or other domestic animal.

The same law also allowed Hawaiian courts to reduce the amount donated to a trust if it could be determined that the amount substantially exceeded what is required.

Quite what they would make of Leona Helmsley’s dying wish is anyone’s guess.

Some people find other ways to show their ‘love’ of animals from beyond the grave, or indeed, in it. In another clause of her will, Ms Helmsley decreed that when her pampered pooch dies, it is to be interred alongside her body in the family mausoleum (which she said must also be regularly steam cleaned), while Paula Yates, who died in 2000, was said to have been buried wearing her favourite item of clothing – a bikini made of white mink fur.

Author: James Zhao | Source: articledashboard.com