There are times in life when mockery is simply bad karma. This is especially important to remember when you're discussing celebrities and their wills. If you hear, for example, about an actor who always played big, dumb guys who inadvertently left his millions to his neighbor's cat, you think, "Of course! He was just a big, dumb guy!" The truth is, even here in the Sunshine State, this stuff can happen -- it's all too easy, even for celebrities, to make a mistake that can tie up an estate for years.

There are other times, of course, when it's not really a mistake. Perhaps the easiest scenario to laugh at is the elderly woman who falls under the spell of a younger man. We write about this stuff a lot, because it's the kind of story the press just loves. These cases spark debate in all kinds of circles: "The heart wants what the heart wants," says one camp; the other replies, "Just how dumb are you? And how dumb was she?"

In one "Probate of the Rich and Famous" story, though, the young man did turn out to be a nefarious schemer. And a felon.

The woman in question was the richest woman in Asia when she died in 2007. She wasn't particularly old when she died -- just 69 -- but she was, in the eyes of some, kind of pathetic. In probate cases, "sad" or "pathetic" is often code for "single and child-free."

Her family was amazed to learn that she had signed a will a few months before her death, naming a young man as her sole heir. He was her feng shui advisor.

What was up with that? We'll finish this up in our next post.

Source: Forbes.com, "Pass The Turkey With A Side Of MORE Celebrity Estate Planning Stories," Danielle and Andy Mayoras, Nov. 21, 2011