It\u2019s almost impossible to overstate the importance of taking the time to plan your estate. Nevertheless, it\u2019s surprising how many American adults haven\u2019t done so. You might think that those who are rich and famous would be way ahead of the curve when it comes to planning their estates properly, considering the resources and lawyers presumably available to them. Yet there are plenty of celebrities and people of note who died with inadequate estate plans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Queen of Soul,\u00a0Aretha Franklin,<\/strong>\u00a0died in 2018, leaving behind a score of wonderful music and countless memories. But it appears Ms. Franklin died without a will or estate plan in place. Her four sons filed documents in the Oakland County (Michigan) Probate Court listing themselves as interested parties, while Ms. Franklin\u2019s niece asked the court to appoint her as personal representative of the estate. Her estate will be distributed according to the laws of her state of residence (Michigan). In addition, creditors will have a chance to make claims against her estate and may get paid before any of her heirs. And if she owned property in more than one state, then probate will likely have to be opened in each state where she owned property. The settling of her estate could drag on for years at a potentially high financial cost.<\/p>\n

Prince Rogers Nelson, who was better known as\u00a0Prince,<\/strong>\u00a0died in 2016. He was 57 years old and still making incredible music and entertaining millions of fans throughout the world. The first filing in the Probate Court for Carver County, Minnesota, was by a woman claiming to be the sister of Prince, asking the court to appoint a special administrator because there was no will or other testamentary documents. As of November 2018, there have been hundreds of court filings from prospective heirs, creditors, and other \u201cinterested parties.\u201d There will be no private administration of Prince\u2019s estate, as the entire ongoing proceeding is open and available to anyone for scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Pablo Picasso<\/strong>\u00a0died in 1973 at the ripe old age of 91, apparently leaving no will or other testamentary instructions. He left behind nearly 45,000 works of art, rights and licensing deals, real estate, and other assets. The division of his estate assets took six years and included seven heirs. The settlement among his nearest relatives cost an estimated $30 million in legal fees and other related costs.<\/p>\n

Abraham Lincoln,<\/strong>\u00a0one of America\u2019s greatest presidents, was also a lawyer. Yet when he met his untimely and tragic death at the hands of John Wilkes Booth in 1865, he died intestate \u2014 without a will or other testamentary documents. On the day of his death, Lincoln\u2019s son, Robert, asked Supreme Court Justice David Davis to assist in handling his father\u2019s financial affairs. Davis ultimately was appointed as the administrator of Lincoln\u2019s estate. It took more than two years to settle his estate, which was divided between his surviving widow and two sons.<\/p>\n

Schedule your free consultation today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of taking the time to plan your estate. Nevertheless, it’s surprising how many American adults haven’t done so. You might think that those who are rich and famous would be way ahead of the curve when it comes to planning their estates properly, considering the resources and lawyers presumably available to them. Yet there are plenty of celebrities and people of note who died with inadequate estate plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-home","category-misc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryantelderlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryantelderlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryantelderlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryantelderlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryantelderlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bryantelderlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3007,"href":"https:\/\/bryantelderlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryantelderlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryantelderlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryantelderlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}