July 8, 2024 / Press
Jonathan Forster Quoted in People Magazine Article About Matthew Perry’s Assets and Estate
Jonathan Forster recently spoke to People Magazine about late actor Matthew Perry’s assets at the time of his death in October 2023, following an appraisal and inventory that found $1.5 million in his personal bank account, a number which appeared low to many given his acting career and leading role in the prominent series Friends.
Jon explains to PEOPLE that the rest of Matthew Perry’s assets and wealth were likely already placed in a trust prior to his death. “It appears that everything in his will was left to his trust. The reason why we use trusts as opposed to wills is that trusts also avoid probate, and probate is a court-supervised transfer of assets, and probate is public,” he shares.
“When we’re typically doing an estate plan with a will and a trust, the will simply leaves assets to the trust,” he continues. “You would fund [the trust] during your lifetime. The will would be kind of like a catch-all, where if there are any assets owned by the person when they pass away, the will is directed to transfer those assets into the trust.”
Jon explains that because all assets under the trust and with a beneficiary designation are not subject to probate, he would advise his clients to retitle their accounts to the name of their trust to avoid probate, which Matthew Perry likely failed to do.
Jon concludes that the details of all Matthew Perry’s assets will never become public, as information about a trust can only be accessed by its beneficiaries and trustees, unlike a will.