Hawaii Five-0 Lets Carol Burnett Live; Tackles Major Financial Planning Issues

A recent episode of Hawaii Five-0 went beyond the call of planning duty and covered all of these things:

• Life Insurance
• Trusts
• Executors
• Power Of Attorney

Plus, it brought back Carol Burnett as Lt. Steve McGarrett’s Aunt Deb, who this time last year had given up a fight against a brain tumor [Check it out here: Hawaii Five-0 Gave Carol Burnett A Brain Tumor for Thanksgiving]. We’re happy to say she opted for chemo and is keeping the fight alive… and now she’s getting married!

All of this info was packed into a tropical cornucopia of action and lush Hawaiian landscapes.

Planning First, Love Later

Everything starts when the parents of two sons are brutally murdered. (Note: That’s pretty much how every episode starts.) After some investigation, Five-0 learns the dad did some nefarious financial shenanigans which landed him in trouble with the Securities Exchange Committee. Even though the family was essentially broke, the parents had a $20 million Life Insurance policy including a Double Indemnity clause.

You’d think this money would go to the government to pay his debts, but Chin Ho explains that they set up a Trust, which shields the money and makes sure it goes to his two sons, who were named as the beneficiaries.

Throughout the episode there’s a slick lawyer pulling some strings, defending the sons and getting in McGarrett and Danno’s way. We learn that he’s the executor of the estate, which means he’d get a cut of the money. When the sons are ruled out as the murderers the lawyer is the prime suspect, but his bank accounts don’t reveal any odd cash transactions to pay off a hitman. Until...

Chin Ho does some more digging and finds out the lawyer is also the Power Of Attorney, meaning that he can authorize financial transactions from the dead parents’ accounts. They then locate a $100,000 transfer to a known hitman, making it seem like the lawyer used his dead clients’ own money to have them killed. Clever, but not clever enough to out-fox Five-0.

But all is not what it seems, because (and get ready for a shocker) the lawyer wasn’t the bad guy! It turns out the mother of the sons paid the hitman to kill her and her husband so the sons would be set for life. Classic Five-0 plot twist, right?

When one son asks “How could she think we would want the money more than having them here?”

The older son’s response: “They always cared too much about the money. They didn’t know how to see what was important anymore.” On a positive note, the sons say they don’t want the blood money and will give it to all the people their dad swindled.

Love Is In The Air

Just to recap her previous appearance: Last Thanksgiving, Burnett was suffering from a terminal brain tumor and decided to forgo treatment. McGarrett was upset but accepted her choice. At some point during the past year she decided to give treatment a try and she’s still as feisty as ever.

While attending a support group she met a charming mob lawyer (long story) named Leonard, who’s also suffering from cancer, and they decided to get married before it was too late. After all the action subsided, they had an adorable wedding at a posh resort. Before they exchanged vows her spouse-to-be said these sweet words: “I can’t believe that a diagnosis with stage four cancer could make me the happiest man in the world but it’s true. You held my hand thru chemo, but you were my real treatment… you are my angel, my one in a million.”

Then Burnett sang a lovely song and chills were had by all.

6 Valuable Lessons Learned

1. Life Insurance will still pay out if the beneficiaries had no idea a policy existed and had nothing to do with the death of the policyholders.

2. Money can be protected from the government if it’s put in a Trust, which the beneficiaries can draw from whenever they like.

3. An executor is responsible for distributing assets from the estate… and can get a cut of the proceeds if it’s part of their job (like being a lawyer).

4. A Power Of Attorney has full access over a person’s money and can do whatever they want with it. So you better trust the person you put in charge.

5. Scott Caan (left) looks so much like his dad James when he makes faces like this:

6. Aunt Deb is a fighter and we’re happy she’s still around. Simply delightful!

Related:

• Hawaii Five-0 Gave Carol Burnett A Brain Tumor for Thanksgiving
• Hawaii Five-0 Gives Carol Burnett A Peaceful Send Off

[Source:Hawaii Five-0, CBS]