Living Without Dreams

Chapter 5 - Accountants, Doctors, and Landlords

Susan, Jessie and Zackary accompanied Greg down to the guest house where Susan deposited her purse, and got cleaned up while Greg made his call to Denis, his accountant.

"Mama, is Papa going to be on the phone a long time?" Jessie asked as Susan came out of the bathroom.

Susan glanced at Greg who looked wholly engrossed in his conversation.

"He may be. Why don't we go see what we can do to help Marion with supper?" Susan suggested.

"Me too, Mom?" Zackary asked.

"I think so. Let's give Greg some quiet so he can concentrate," Susan said.

Greg mouthed, "Thanks," and Susan smiled as the three of them left for the main house.

"Greg is on the phone?" Richard guessed as they came in and Marion invited Zackary and Jessie to watch TV until it was time for dinner.

"Yes. Looks like he could be a while, Susan predicted. "I'm guessing he should probably meet with his accountant at some point."

"Probably," Richard agreed. "I do know Denis took steps to protect Greg's ongoing assets starting from the time we all got our first letters from him. Come to think of it, I think Denis might have heard from him first ... but anyway I digress. My point is I imagine he needs to meet with Greg in person to explain what he's done. I had to sign some partnership papers to let him do it, and he did explain it to me, but I didn't understand what he was talking about exactly. What I do know is, Greg probably would understand it ... he was always the financial brains behind our operation, so I'm sure Denis needs to talk to him too."

"You use Denis as your accountant too?" Susan asked in surprise.

"Not me personally, our business partnership does," Richard struggled to explain. "Greg set it up, years ago. It's complicated," he finished with a shrug.

"Sounds like it," Susan said. "And I'm sure he does need to talk to him about whatever was going on while we were gone ... but I do wish he'd ask him about the normal things first."

"What do you mean?" Richard asked.

"Greg needs to figure out where to deposit his checks from Stern and Morgan," Susan said. "For the time being, that's what we have to live off of, so I would think that's the most immediate thing he needs to take care of."

"Most normal people would think that," Marion agreed as she returned from getting the kids settled watching a show on TV. "But in their business, finances happen a little differently than they do in the normal world."

"In what way?" Susan asked.

"They have personal finances, and then there are their estates ..." Marion began.

"Greg has mentioned that. His was distributed to his beneficiaries when he was declared dead," Susan said.

"Yes, but that was probably only the value of his estate at the time he was pronounced dead," Marion said. "The thing about people in their industry is that a performer's estate can and usually does continue to collect royalties and payments for things regardless of whether the person who they're set up on behalf of is alive or dead. Most of their contracts are written for payments to be made to their estate instead of them personally. Then during life, they draw an income from that estate. After death, the income earned by the estate continues to be paid out to those named. I suspect what Denis did was to redirect the outgoing payments to some other sort of fund, as of the date he began to question whether Greg might actually be alive."

"Or he might have redirected the incoming ones into investments," Richard said.

"That could be," Marion agreed.