Inception is the new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page and Michael Caine. It starts by telling us about the ways that dreams can be implanted into people so they dream what they’re told to dream about. Whether it’s possible or not isn’t the problem; the difficulty is in the legal services they need to worry about as the film develops.
The father figure of a world corporate organization is dying. His close legal team tell him that now is the time that he should give power of attorney to his advisers so they can run his business while he is ill.
What this means is that by the father’s own signed document, he’d be giving his advisers the power to take decisions that he’d taken before he was ill. It would appear that he didn’t really trust his advisers enough because he wouldn’t sign the document.
That makes a very good point; while it’s very important for someone/people to look after your finances and those of your company while you’re too ill to make decisions, you should never give that power to people you don’t trust 100%. You never know what they might do with your money.
The advisers could have asked the father to provide a power of attorney to continue after he’d passed over to a state where he could no longer make his own judgment calls. Then people would be in place to make those decisions for him until his death.
Secondly, it was revealed later on in the film that a will existed that was ready to be used, but that the son knew of a second, later will that was held in the father’s safe. This gave the son a dilemma that should never happen. He could reads the two wills and see which one suited him best. He would destroy the other one.
That’s why LSUK always suggest that any previous wills are destroyed completely. Then there’s never any doubt which will a client meant to be used. Even though several people could prove that a later will had been drawn up and no doubt copies would be available, it’s only the signed original that counts.
Always take careful advice was professional advisers who can guide you down the correct route for legal documents – and trust them 100% Forunately, we didn’t get to find out which will the son chose!
Filed under: News
I was thinking along those lines when I saw Inception. You make a very good point.