For many people, some of our biggest inspirations are celebrities. It is common for the rich and famous to have estate plans, but celebrities make mistakes and sometimes they can be costly. In this blog, we will dive into three different famous musicians’ estate plans and look at where they went wrong.
Talented singer and actress, Whitney Houston, had a will when she passed away in 2012. The mistake that she made was that it had not been updated since 1993 when her daughter was born. During the years in between, she went through a divorce and had other family and financial changes. Due to this, her daughter was able to receive 10% of the estate when she turned 21 and would’ve received the rest later. Unfortunately, Bobbi Kristina, her daughter, passed away in 2015 at age 22. If she had updated her will, she could have considered whether her daughter was mature enough to handle that large amount of money and could have decided who was to receive the estate and trust if Bobbi passed away. Instead, the remainder of the estate went to Houston’s two brothers and to her mother, Cissy Houston.
Michael Jackson passed away in 2009. It was discovered that he had a trust, but he never funded the trust during his lifetime. This has led to a long and costly battle in the California Probate Court over control of his estate. Despite the bad, there were some good planning moves made by Mr. Jackson. He has a good, assembled team of financial and legal professionals; he named a guardian for his 3 children; and he had a will and living trust.
Jim Morrison passed away at age 27 and left behind a two-page will. He was unmarried and had no children and left his entire estate to his girlfriend at the time. If his girlfriend was no longer alive the estate was to be passed down to his siblings. Pamela Courson, his girlfriend, passed away 3 years later and the estate was passed on to her parents. Morrison’s parents, whom he was estranged from, were upset with this and claimed that he was incompetent and that he and his girlfriend’s common law marriage was illegitimate. The dispute was settled, and the parents of both Jim and Pamela divided the estate equally. Morrison could have left all his assets in trust for Courson instead of leaving the estate directly to her. This would have ensured that when she died any remaining assets would pass to his siblings.
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