Recently my wife and I enjoyed viewing the new movie, “Hell or Highwater,” starring Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine. Critics agree it is one of the best movies of 2016, with excellent acting, great cinematography, and an exciting script that really holds your attention. It’s also the first movie I’ve ever seen which features a crooked estate planning attorney!
The movie tells the story of two brothers — Toby, a poor divorced father trying to make a better life for his sons, and Tanner, a short-tempered ex-con with a loose trigger finger, who rob branch after branch of Texas Midlands Bank which is foreclosing on a reverse mortgage held against their recently deceased mother’s homestead, land which they suspect contains oil reserves. Jeff Bridges plays a soon-to-be retired Texas Ranger assigned to track them down. The brothers take enough of the bank’s money to pay off the mortgage and back taxes owed by the mother’s estate just in time to avoid title passing to the bank. The mother has no will, and when Tanner is killed in a shootout with Bridges and his back-ups, Toby is left as the sole heir.
Toby then visits his local small-town estate planning attorney because he wants to preserve the property for his sons. The attorney recommends an irrevocable trust but quickly guesses where Toby came up with the money to pay off the liens on the property given the notoriety of the recent robberies. With a knowing wink to his client, the attorney recommends that Toby name Texas Midlands Bank as trustee to throw the bank’s investigators off Toby’s trail. The strategy works. Oil comes in on the property, the trust is funded with lots of money for Toby’s boys, and the bank earns sizeable trustee fees off property unknowingly paid off with its own money! Toby can lie low too, except now retired Ranger Bridges pays him a little social call at the end of the movie to let Toby know he’s not out of the woods yet. The last scene is so good it makes me wish for a sequel.
While the estate planning attorney’s conduct in the movie was clearly unethical, his advice was very effective! This cracked take on estate planning is consistent with the film’s portrayal of the bank as a consciously predatory lender. The “moral” is that it takes a crook to deal with crooks. But that’s Hollywood.
Atty. William F. Greenhalgh is a member of WealthCounsel and has been engaged in the practice of law for the last thirty-seven years. For more information or to schedule a free initial consultation, call (608) 355-0907.