Will, estate planning critical for everyone
Singer without will still making headlines more than year after death
If one thing is clear from the death of music icon Prince, it’s this: having a will is important.
Prince died in April 2016 after an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful painkiller. He did not have a will, which means his estate had to be settled through Minnesota probate law.
His estate included songs, videos, real estate and more estimated to be worth between $200 and $300 million. The singer had neither children nor a spouse, yet he left behind a massive estate with no indication on what his intentions were for his holdings.
While his sister and five half-siblings have been named Prince’s heirs, a Minneapolis StarTribune report notes that it could take years to close the estate.
More than a year after his death, Prince is back in the news this week because of that estate and disputes between the heirs and the estate’s administrator.
It’s baffling that someone who was so in control of his music would not take the steps to make sure that once he was gone, his final wishes could be executed.
Without a will, Prince has no say, no final wishes. Without a will, his siblings will inherit in equal parts the wealth on the table.
If one has a will, one can leave an estate to one’s spouse, or carve it up between a spouse and one’s children. Or, one can leave a portion to the spouse, a portion to a child, and a portion to a charitable organization. That is easy enough to sort out — with a will. But imagine if that person had multiple marriages and divorces, and multiple children and step-children, and didn’t leave a will? That situation can get ugly quickly.
A death in the family can tear that family apart as they fight to divide up property. But a will can help mitigate those circumstances.
And ultimately, a will allows the deceased’s final wishes to be carried out, a last act determined in life, to make situations easier on surviving family members.
Take a lesson from Prince, and put a will together.