Get ready for the next big court case. According to Roger Friedman at Showbiz411.com, it is most likely that Prince did not have a will.
Friedman talked with former lawyer and friend of the singer, Londell McMillan, who said “He thought he’d live until he was one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine years old. He didn’t think he would die. He couldn’t face it. Some people are like that.”
That leaves Paisley Park, all of the non-Warner Brothers albums (Emancipation, Musicology, HITNRUN, etc.), an archive that may have up to two thousand unfinished pieces of music, any companies of which Prince was an owner and all of his other assets totally up in the air.
According to Friedman, this will become an issue this week in a Minnesota probate court that will have to study the situation and make a determination.
In Minnesota, the person who wants to be the executor of the estate must go to court, present a death certificate and a petition or application to be appointed in charge of the estate.
If there truly is no will, assets will go through what is called intestate succession where spouses (he did not have one although he had two ex-wives), children (deceased) and parents (deceased) are in line. Finally, on a list at NOLO.com, comes siblings, of which there is only his full sister, Tyka.
Here is where everything could go awry. First, there are two ex-wives and, while they would not normally be in line, it wouldn’t stop them from possibly petitioning the court. Fortunately, it appears that Prince and the two women remained on good terms so there was no animosity between them.
Then there are seven half-brothers and sisters of which five are alive. Prince and Tyka’s father, John Nelson, had three daughters and two sons from a previous marriage before marrying Mattie Shaw. Two of those, one half-brother and one-half sister, are deceased.
Shaw, Prince and Tyka’s mother, had two sons, one born before marrying Nelson and one born after their divorce.
In most states, “Brothers, sisters, and half-brothers and half-sisters all count in this group [surviving siblings]”. That means, unless there is some law in Minnesota that would negate that concept, the Prince estate would be split between Tyka and their five surviving half-brothers and sisters.
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