Top 5 Celebrity Estate Battles
John Goff from Investment News put together a list of the top five nastiest celebrity estate battles:
- Michael Jackson. Jackson set up Michael Jackson Family Trust in order to keep the administration of his estate private. But he forgot to fund the trust.
- Farrah Fawcett. Fawcett succumbed to cancer in June 2009, leaving an estate estimated at $50 million. Currently, the battle is between Fawcett’s estate and producers of the documentary on Fawcett’s battle with cancer .
- Jimi Hendrix. After almost two decades, Jimi’s father was awarded the rights to his son’s music catalogue. He then died in 2002 leaving an estate valued at $80 million to his adopted daughter, Janie. Jimi’s half brother sued, claiming that Janie had coerced Jimi’s father into cutting others out of his will.
- Anna Nicole Smith. After a fifteen-year battle, a federal appeals court found that Smith’s late husband was mentally fit and under no pressure when he signed off on the will leaving $1.6 billion to his son.
- John Wayne. The American icon died in 1979, leaving considerable assets behind. Today, his estate is valued at anywhere between $10 million to $15 million, and his relatives are still fighting over it.
See John Goff, Estate Battles of the Stars, Investment News, June 2010.
Special thanks to Peter Parlapiano (2011 MBA/M.S. PFP candidate, Texas Tech) for bringing this to my attention.
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