Michael Jackson’s Estate Issues:

Michael Jackson’s estate was not kept up to date.

Indeed, Michael Jackson’s estate plan included a will in conjunction with a family trust. Unfortunately, Jackson’s will is missing vital information, beneficiary designations!

This omission temporarily disqualifies the originally appointed administrator and executors from exercising their powers to privately settle the estate. As a result, the estate now must be exposed to the California probate system; it will determine who gets control over the estate and make many of the proceedings public record.

Currently, Mrs. Katherine Jackson, Michael Jackson’s mother, is the administrator of the estate.  She will likely be succeeded by two of Michael Jackson’s former business colleagues, an attorney and a recording label executive. Michael appointed them as his executors when he established the estate plan in 2002. These individuals are interested to gain immediate control over the estate for business purposes. You can see how the viewpoints of a mother mourning the loss of her son could differ from two businessmen awaiting to take control of her son’s estate.

Estates with multiple administrators and/or executors who have differing agendas can become very difficult to settle, expensive and emotionally taxing.

This is a great example of how important it is to keep an estate plan updated.  Additionally, be very careful and ask lots of questions before deciding who will handle your affairs.  Don’t let your estate become a “Thriller”. 

Who will have control after you are gone?

Find: Financial Advisors with Estate Planning expertise.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Estate Planning, Retirement Planning, Wills and Trusts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.