Hey there, Legal Tea Listeners! This is your host, Jenny Rozelle. We’re back to “estate planning of the rich and famous” where we chat about celebrities and their estate planning (or lack thereof!). Today’s episode is on Matthew Perry – a name a majority of people will recognize – whether due to his well-known character on the TV show, Friends, or due to his sudden and tragic death just a couple of years ago in 2023 that was sadly plastered all over the news. So, today’s episode is on him and what happened estate-wise following his expected death. As we always do on these episodes, I want to talk a little bit about Matthew first – so we get to know him as a person, which also helps connect dots later when we get to this estate stuff. So, let’s start there…
According to Wikipedia and Biography.com, Matthew really rose to international fame while on the TV show, Friends, as Chandler Bing from like 1994-2004ish, though, as many know, his acting career began much earlier. But even way before that … Matthew was born in Massachusetts and raised in Ottawa by his journalist mother Suzanne Morrison. Ultimately, Matthew ended up moving to Los Angeles as a teenager to live with his father, who was also an actor, John Bennett Perry. He had shared that his parents' early divorce really shaped his childhood, but that he also maintained close relationships with not only both parents but his five half-siblings as well.
Before "Friends," Matthew appeared in shows like "Second Chance" and "Sydney." Though, there is no denying that the “Friends” role of Chandler Bing made him seriously a household name and earned him an Emmy nomination. After "Friends" ended, he continued acting in series like "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," "The Good Wife," and "Go On." He also starred in films including "The Whole Nine Yards" and "17 Again." Matthew wasn't just an actor; he also wrote and produced television shows, including "Mr. Sunshine" and a reboot of "The Odd Couple." A man of many talents!
As many in Hollywood … despite his professional success, Matthew faced quite a few personal challenges, particularly his long battle with alcohol and prescription drug addiction. He was very candid about his struggles in a memoir "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing” he wrote in 2022. That came out just a year-ish before he passed away. Matthew, though, decided to turn this “negative” into a positive …. When he chose to to convert his Malibu home into the “Perry House,” a sober living facility, and became an advocate for addiction treatment. More personally-speaking, Matthew was never married nor did he have any children, but he was once engaged to Molly Hurwitz, a literary manager, from 2020-2021ish. In the memoir I just mentioned, Matthew openly discussed how his past addiction issues significantly affected his personal relationships and his unfulfilled desires for marriage and family.
Fast forward to October 28, 2023, Matthew passed away at the age of 54. Sadly, his assistant ended up finding him face down in his Los Angeles home’s pool. They called 9-1-1 and the paramedics pronounced him dead not long after arriving around 4 PM. In the weeks following his death, there were a lot of whispers, headlines, etc. around the cause of this death and for sake of time, I’m not going to go into all the craziness, but just know that all that craziness does have a bit of an impact on Matthew’s estate, which we will get to in a second. So … after Matthew’s death, it was confirmed that he did have an estate plan – yay! Which is good because according to a blog by the law firm, Barron, Rosenberg, Mayoras, and Mayoras out of Michigan, the value of Matthew’s estate was estimated to be around $120 Million, with an additional $20 Million coming in annually in residuals. You may be thinking, “Okay so what type of estate plan did he have?” Well, let’s talk about it!
According to a blog from Legacy Assurance Plan, Matthew actually was a good example of good estate planning through his creation of the Alvy Singer Living Trust, a revocable living trust named after Woody Allen's character in the movie "Annie Hall." This trust offered Matthew significant advantages, particularly in maintaining privacy. The trust structure meant that unlike a traditional Last Will and Testament that goes through a public probate court process, the details of Matthew’s asset distribution remained fairly confidential. According to media reports, the primary beneficiaries of Matthew’s estate plan included his parents (Suzanne Morrison and John Bennett Perry), at least one half-sibling, and a former girlfriend. Interestingly, the trust included specific provisions to prevent any potential future children from making claims against the estate - a forward-thinking measure to protect against potential inheritance disputes. We’ve seen this before on past Legal Tea episodes, where people have come out of the woodwork claiming to be children or family of wealthy and famous celebrities.
This estate strategy that Matthew utilized is something that not only high-net-worth individuals in the entertainment industry do, but also every day people like you and I. I say that … well because I highly doubt any cool celebrities listen to my podcast! By utilizing a Living Trust as the primary vehicle for his estate, Matthew was able to achieve several things like: Asset protection, Privacy maintenance, Tax efficiency, Streamlined asset distribution, Prevention of potential future claims, and Simplified estate administration.
A few other little nuggets that I found along the way in my research for this episode were – first, that it appears, according to People Magazine, a couple of his close people were named as the Executors of the Will and/or Trust – specifically, Lisa Ferguson, who was Matthew’s business manager, and Robin Ruzan, who is a producer. It seems that Lisa may have been the Trustee and both of them may have been the Executor – and I say that because Lisa was named, as Trustee of the Trust, on the title of his home, the same home he died at. It is located in the Pacific Palisades-area, which to sadly bring things up a bit full circle – his home is in the area that was tragically devasted by the recent fires in California. It was sold in late 2024 (October 2024, specifically) from Matthew’s Trust to a real estate developer. Then, just a couple months later, that’s when the fires broke out. I saw a few reports about the status of it (due to the fires) and it appears that it was not completely ruined. Anyway …. Kind of a strange little connection to the current times.
Matthew’s estate really reminds of an episode I did many, many episodes ago on everyone’s favorite – Betty White. In Betty’s episode, her plan, like Matthew’s here, was a solid estate plan and not much is known about it. In Betty’s estate, it seems her Estate did not have to go through Probate. When things go through Probate, things get filed with the Court – that’s when we start hearing mumblings about a celebrity’s estate. With Betty, it’s been sort of … crickets. A whole lot of nothing – no talk of probate, no talk of a Will, etc. but, just like with Matthew, there is talk of a Trust, but Trusts are handled and settled privately – which is why we don’t know much about Betty’s estate or Matthew’s estate.
So … what are the big takeaways from Matthew’s estate plan then – well, to me, the biggest takeaway is definitely the privacy aspect. I searched and searched and searched for more information on Matthew’s estate plan – at least more than I was able to give you here– and I tell you what, there’s very little information out there. And THAT is the beautiful thing about doing a thorough estate plan. Things CAN, with some good planning, remain private, so long as you put the time, money, and energy into estate planning. To bring this home for you – I often hear from my own clients and from prospective clients – “Jenny, do we need a Trust? Do we have enough assets for a Trust?”
I always answer the same way – it depends on the goal. But I should say … first and foremost, Trusts are NOT just for the wealthy. I help a lot of clients get Trusts in place (and most of my clients are just everyday people). Instead of how much in assets, I always focus on the GOAL – It depends on what they are attempting to accomplish and what is important to them. For example, are you just trying to get the bare minimum done right now just to get something in place? Maybe a Trust is not needed. Or rather, are you trying to avoid the probate court process or maybe you are trying to provide a specific distribution pattern (i.e. based on age) for beneficiaries? Or, are you trying to gain asset protection? If any of those are a yes, maybe a Trust DOES make sense. It’s very goal-dependent rather than how many assets you have.
Another big takeaway from Matthew’s estate plan is that with a Trust, you not only have to have the Trust prepared and signed (and all that good stuff), but there’s also a really, really important process that happens AFTER you sign the document called funding. F—U-N-D-I-N-G. Now, funding a Trust means you changing ownership of assets or changing beneficiary designations on assets to get all your assets (money, house, personal property, etc.) either in the name of the Trust (as in the Trust will be the OWNER of the asset) or sometimes, depending on the type of asset, sometimes we make make the Trust a beneficiary on the asset. The funding process is so, so important and truly puts the bow on the top –in fact, without the Trust being properly funded, it may be a pile of paper that does not end up accomplish what you are trying to do with it. So, if you have a Trust or if you want a Trust, be sure to get the thing funded.
Alrighty, let’s wrap this episode up and shift to a sneak peak at next week. Next week we’re back to a “cautionary tale” episode where we talk about real-life clients, real-life cases that I, or my office, have worked on -or- maybe they are just generally good things to know/be aware of so you don’t slip up and turn into a cautionary tale one day. Next week, we are going to talk about … to gift or not to gift, that is THEE question! I was asked to do an episode on this … about making gifts to people and what are the pros, cons, the things people need to know about and think about, etc. So yeah, next week will be on that … until then, Legal Tea Listeners…take care and be well!
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