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Home » Wills and Probate » Who Gets Prince’s Hundred Million Dollar Estate?

Who Gets Prince’s Hundred Million Dollar Estate?

Prince poses as money rains down from the heavensAs all of us are painfully aware at this point, the artist we formerly knew as Prince has passed away. He was found in his Minnesota home/recording studio on Thursday (cause of death, unknown).

It’s been a year for the obituaries — David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Antonin Scalia, and now Prince? The Grim Reaper seems to be working harder than ever in 2016.

One question that surfaces when iconic people die, inevitably and perhaps unfortunately, is that of their estate: who gets to split it up? If ever there was a probate case ripe for exploiting, this is it. Prince’s family and friends are surely on guard for whoever’s bold enough to dip their greedy fingers into the superstar’s mega-fortune. Still, that problem aside, what’s the actual plan for divvying up Prince’s estate? And how much is he even worth?

Wait… Is There Even a Will?

That’s the question! Prince’s publicist, Anna Meacham, has yet to confirm the existence of a Prince will. She’s either playing dumb (in good faith) or is just as clueless as we are. After all, autopsy results are still inconclusive at this point. We don’t even know how he died, although that hasn’t stopped the internet from trying to figure it out.

At first, it seems weird that someone as loaded as Prince might not have a last will and testament. He wouldn’t be the first celebrity to die without establishing a plan for inheritance, but still, it’s not like he was in the prime of his youth.

His death was, in fact, unexpected as hell. And since the world was unanimously shocked by Prince dying, is it so unlikely that the Purple One didn’t think he was about to die? People who don’t think they’re about to die are probably less likely to have the details of their will on their minds. Then again, one could argue that the whole point of wills is to protect people’s stuff in case they unexpectedly die.

$800M, Up For Grabs?

Anyways, if Prince drafted a last will and testament, we don’t know about it yet, which means all we can really do is assume that he never did. And this makes the situation very interesting. Since nobody knows what Prince wanted to do with his riches, there’s a growing sentiment that, to some extant, it is up for grabs.

How much is that exactly?

Well, according to the media at large, Prince has a net worth of roughly $300 million — not including the goldmine that is his music catalog. As long as people love Prince, they will buy his merchandise and listen to his music, and as long as this happens, money will continue to flood into his estate. If you haven’t heard, Prince also has a reported stockpile of unreleased tracks in his recording studio. And by stockpile, I mean a couple thousand songs, or something. Like, a lot.

While Prince himself is worth $300M, his music and brand has an estimated value of about $500M. The craziest part? It’s unclear whether this calculation includes his unreleased material… Which some sources say is extensive enough that unheard Prince tracks can be released regularly for the next 100 years. So.

Enter The Princess (His Sister):

As anyone living in the real world knows, it’s not just like Prince’s millions of dollars are getting put in a giant pile for friends and family to grab out of. There’s Minnesota state law to consider. There’s bureaucracy to navigate.

Minnesota probate law states that when an unmarried person dies, if they are childless, their estate is allocated among grandparents, parents, and siblings.

Prince’s parents were named John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw. Both are deceased. Same goes for grandparents. That leaves one eligible heir to the Purple One’s fortune.

Tyka Nelson, 55, is Prince’s sister. Although she and her brother had rough patches in the past, the two of them were allegedly quite close in the years leading up to his death. Their rough patches had to do with Nelson’s addiction to crack cocaine, and also the fact that she was prostituting herself to make ends meet. Supporting two kids and a crack addiction gets expensive very fast.

Hopefully, acquiring her brother’s massive wealth will improve Nelson’s life rather than making it worse. Hopefully she’ll spend the money responsibly, maybe even use it to leave her vices further behind in the dust. But we’ll have to see. After all, there’s still a chance that a purple piece of paper turns up in the House of Prince. There’s no doubt in my mind that, if it exists, it’s printed on purple paper.

Probate Can Be Problematic:

Even when deceased persons aren’t as wealthy as Prince, the probate of an estate has a tendency to get messy. When there’s no will to reference, it can get even messier. That’s why legal representation is so crucial for estate administrators, as well as heirs — without a lawyer’s guidance, there’s the risk that the probate process could be irreparably compromised.

At Turner Law Offices, P.C., our team of attorneys have years of experience working with clients across a wide range of cases related to probate. Whether you’re close related to a deceased person and have a stake in their inheritance or you’re in charge of allocating the estate yourself, the best course of action is to consult a legal professional as soon as possible. Call today, or go online to set up your free initial consultation, and meet with a skilled lawyer who’s ready and waiting to guide you toward the justice you deserve.

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