A will that appears out of thin air demands scrutiny. Discover how a probate attorney can help assess the validity of a will.
When Anthony Hsieh passed away on November 27, 2020, his estate was initially assumed to be intestate (meaning he died without a will), and his father, Richard Hsieh, was appointed as the estate’s administrator.
In February 2025, however, an unexpected plot twist emerged: A document purported to be Tony Hsieh’s will, allegedly signed in 2015 by Hsieh and five witnesses, was discovered in Pakistan among the belongings of someone reportedly named “Pir Muhammad.”
Although attorneys Robert Armstrong and Mark Ferrario appear to have had no prior personal or professional connection to Hsieh, they are named as executors in the newly surfaced document that has been lodged with the Clark County District Court in Las Vegas for authentication.
According to the State Bar of Nevada, this is a standard probate step required for estates valued above $25,000 or containing real property — both of which almost certainly apply to Hsieh’s multimillion-dollar assets and nationwide real estate holdings.
No official will contest has been filed to challenge the document’s validity so far — and it’s unclear whether one ever will be. But Hsieh’s father, Richard, has expressed skepticism about the document’s authenticity and is investigating its origins and the circumstances surrounding its discovery.
Notably, the will includes a no-contest clause, which could place heirs’ inheritances at risk if they were to challenge the document. At present, only a hearing to address the will’s validity has been scheduled.
Under Nevada law, any will that meets the statutory requirements under NRS 133.040 is presumed valid unless proven otherwise.
For a will to be considered valid in Nevada, it must meet all the following requirements:
- It is signed by the testator (the will creator); and
- It is attested by at least two competent witnesses in the testator’s presence.
Whether this recently surfaced will satisfies these requirements remains uncertain. What is clear, however, is that if the will is upheld, it could upend years of estate administration under intestate succession laws — redirecting assets according to the will’s terms, transferring management authority from Richard Hsieh to the named executors and potentially diluting or even eliminating inheritances established under the previous administration.
Conversely, if the will is invalidated, the estate administration will continue under Nevada’s intestacy laws, supervised by Richard Hsieh as administrator.
While it may seem surprising that a person with hundreds of millions in assets could leave such ambiguity, issues like this are more common than you might expect. This saga underscores the importance of proper estate planning — or, if planning was incomplete, taking immediate steps to investigate any suspicious documents. Oddities in a will should never be dismissed as mistakes, since they may indicate that the document is not fully valid or authentic.
Assessing the legitimacy of a will can be complex for anyone without legal experience. A probate attorney can review the document, identify red flags and, if necessary, take steps to look into its origins, ensuring both the interests of the estate and beneficiaries are protected.
