When high-profile celebrities with a lot of money pass away, the press knows that people are interested in the estate details. They dig through them if they are available, and they are widely publicized. This is an intrusion of privacy, but mistakes that are made can be instructive.
This dynamic definitely applies to the 2016 passing of the music icon Prince, we will revisit the matter now that it has finally been settled.
Intestacy
Prince did not have a will or a trust when he passed away, so he died intestate. In these situations, the probate court will supervise the administration of the estate. An administrator is named by the court, and in this case, it was Comerica, which is a financial services company.
We touched upon the loss of privacy in the opening. When an estate goes through probate, the records are available to the public, including the press. This is why details become available when a famous person dies without a will.
The administrator will pay final debts and identify and inventory the assets that will eventually be distributed to the heir or heirs. In an ordinary case, this may be a bit time-consuming, but it is not a Herculean task.
When you are talking about an artist that is a multimillionaire with royalty rights, the situation is extremely complicated. It took six years, but early in February, the Prince estate was finally closed.
Estate Tax
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Mr. Nirenstein is licensed to practice before the courts of the State of Connecticut and the United States District Court. He is a member of the Connecticut and Hartford County Bar Associations, and the Estate and Probate, Elder Law, Business Law and Real Estate Sections of the Connecticut Bar Association.
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