A recent Wall Street Journal story about Josephine (Jo) Franklin, a once acclaimed TV journalist from a well-to-do family who seemingly had it all only to end up homeless living in a parking lot is an unfortunate example of the toll of mental illness, especially when it comes to financial and estate planning. Obsessed with her image, Franklin portrayed a fantasy life to those around her, which turned out to be a web of pathological lies.
Franklin was born to wealthy parents and grew up in the Chicago area. She graduated from the University of Florida and forged an impressive career, known for her documentaries about the Middle East and her work as a PBS producer. She married a successful surgeon and had two kids.
The picture-perfect story takes a wild twist, however. After her career hit a roadblock in the 1990s and a failed attempt to segue her life story into a novel (the book flopped and she owed the book marketer $25,000), Franklin ended up divorced, with little remaining income. Per the WSJ story, the judge in the case noted that Franklin seemed to be living beyond her means, leasing a luxury car while $150,000 in debt. Her ex-husband ended up with custody of their two kids.
It was during this time that Franklin began to unravel, as she continued to live beyond her means with seemingly no actual income and refusing to find work. Her behavior caused a rift between her and her children, who attempted to intervene. Franklin eventually ended up homeless in South Florida, living in empty parking garages and stealing boxed wine from CVS.
Tall Tales
Unable to cope with her new reality, Franklin would lie to those around her, telling friends from the local coffee shop that she lived on Jupiter Island, had a personal driver and didn’t carry a cellphone to “stop her being tracked by the Saudis.” That was just the tip of the iceberg, as one of Franklin’s most outrageous fabrications was convincing her alma mater that she was making a $2 million donation to the school. The university was so impressed with her credentials that they planned a lavish gala to honor her contribution. The night before the event, her check bounced.
Other tales included Franklin claiming to have a direct line to Prince Harry and access to Colin Powell’s private jet.
Her children, aware of her mental illness, made several attempts to get her into a medical treatment facility, but Franklin refused. Following an ultimatum that she either stop lying or they would stop talking to her, her two children became estranged from her.
It’s reported that Franklin inherited about $400,000 following her father’s death, who, having believed her lies, thought she was legitimately wealthy and almost disinherited her. It’s unclear what became of that money, as Franklin continued to be homeless, racking up infractions and being arrested multiple times for theft and marijuana possession.
In 2022, Franklin’s sibling derived a plan to get her off the streets, collaborating with her Starbucks friends (who never led on that they knew the truth about her) to pretend that one of them needed a house sitter. The house was actually a fully stocked $2,100 apartment rented by her brother, giving “her a roof over her head without her having to acknowledge having any problems.” She continued to live in that home until passing away from heart failure over a year later, at age 76.
Prior to her death, her children tried to reconcile with her, offering to work with a therapist to get them to a “better place.” Sadly, their emails went unanswered.
Planning with Mental Health in Mind
While mental illness is often unpredictable, clients can take several steps to plan ahead in the event they find themselves in a similar situation. “From an estate planning perspective, the use of a trust that anticipates a mental health crisis may occur, thereby building in flexibility, can be helpful,” opines Sandy Glazier, partner at Lipson Neilson in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “Providing a trustee or trust protector with the ability to withhold distributions, or place conditions of treatment on distribution can be helpful. Often, it’s difficult for family members to administer such trust provisions, so giving the trustee the ability to nominate and act with an independent trustee who can provide a buffer and limit inter-family resentment can also be helpful.”
When the existence of such issues is known up front, it may be helpful to have an independent trustee in place from the outset, Glazier explains. She suggests clients consider providing the trustee with the ability to engage a care manager or other professionals to provide advice on how best to assess the beneficiary’s status and recommended treatment options can help a trustee navigate the types of conditions it may wish to put in place to entice a beneficiary with substance abuse and/or mental health issues into treatment or compliance with a treatment regime. “There’s no magic wand to perfect solution,” she adds.
Though we don’t know what happened to the money Franklin inherited from her father (or what type of planning, if any, he had in place), and whether it was squandered away, proper planning techniques with Franklin’s mental health in mind and an independent trustee could potentially have helped cox Franklin into receiving the treatment she needed.