There are estate-planning disasters, and then there are the “quit the business that you grew into a phenomenon, become addicted to various substances, buy random parts of a town in Utah and die in a literal fire of your own making” kinds of disasters.
That was the swan dive that
Tony Hsieh executed on the way to his demise. After 20 years of leading Zappos to world-class success and redeveloping parts of downtown Las Vegas, Hsieh unraveled in spectacular fashion.
Hsieh died soon after firefighters pulled him from a building in Connecticut charred by a fire he set, leaving not only an estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars but also a mystery as to what he wanted done with it. Although he had substantial assets, the 46-year-old did not leave a will or any estate-planning documents.