Don’s daughters asked if I would find an estate planner to help them decide what to do to minimize the estate tax bite on their portion of his estate, if he is found to be dead.  I had set up a Land Trust for them when Don & I got married and we had added to the trust as things sold and paid off until two years ago.  Don’s ex-wife, who had asked for the divorce because she was in love and wanted to remarry, had received a million dollar settlement back in 1990.  She had said that she knew Don was worth more, but that she didn’t want to fight, she just wanted a million and her freedom.

 

Don agreed and told Anne McQueen, the secretary who (I believed) embezzled so much from us, and Gale Rathbone and Lynda Sanchez his daughters who were at that time our book keepers to sit down with their mother and the books and let her pick out 1 million of his best stuff because he thought she was being fair with him.  After the divorce, Don and his Ex got along better than they ever did while they were married for the next five years.  That’s about how long it took Gladys Lewis Cross, Don’s ex-wife to lose most of what she got by letting their eldest daughter, Donna Pettis, invest it in the stock market for her (according to Don).

 

Donna Pettis moved back home with her mother, while building her dream home, and Gladys Lewis Cross filed a lawsuit against Don saying that he had always kept her in the dark and that he wouldn’t let her have her own attorney in the divorce and that she was treated unfairly in the divorce and wanted another million.  She got the daughters, Donna Pettis, Gale Rathbone and Lynda Sanchez to testify that they were threatened by their dad if they revealed to their mother how much he was really worth (which was at that time about 3 million) and Anne refused to admit that she was there when Don told them to let Gladys Lewis Cross pick out the best of his investments.

 

I was there but Don did not want to hurt Gladys Lewis Cross’ feelings by letting her know that I was privy to their private settlement, and he would not allow me to come forward with the truth.  He thought up until the very end that surely at least one of his children would tell the truth, but they all lied about it under oath and when the last of them did, Don told me to dissolve their Trust, remove them from his will (they never were in his will to my knowledge) and that he wanted to move to Costa Rica to get away from the whole lot of them.

 

I didn’t want to move to Costa Rica, but did agree to let Don try it out, hoping he would tire of the idea.  I agreed to let him transfer 1 million of our assets to Costa Rica, knowing full well that he would lose it because he would not take the necessary steps to protect himself.  I felt that in time he would get over his anger and disappointment with his daughters (he had disowned his son years ago because of the stealing and drug abuse).  I never did dissolve their trust because no matter how upset Don was with them, they were his children and should be provided for.  As I said before, I am the one who set up the trust for them because Don wouldn’t bother.

 

Don’s insurance policy came up for renewal and by this time the secretary, Anne had formed an alliance with a dirt bag Don did business with.  The dirt bag, Wendell Williams knew that he couldn’t get to Don from here, because he would have to come through me and I had caught him stealing from Don on several occasions and brought it to Don’s attention.  Wendell Williams has IRS problems and couldn’t have Don put properties in his name, so he had Don put them in Anne’s name, as Trustee.

 

After being our secretary for 18 years, Anne knew full well that if there was no trust agreement then the property would be considered hers personally if anything happened to Don.  Anne became the owner of Don’s life insurance policy, as Trustee under another non existent trust.  The policy was for 1,250,000.00 and the disbursement she told Don was in effect was