UPDATE: A judge has confirmed that Prince did in fact die without a will, TMZ reports. Bremer Bank has officially been appointed to distribute his assets, which are said to be worth around $150 million.
Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, has claimed that the late musician does not have proper will and this morning filed paperwork in Minneapolis, requesting that a court name her as the special administrator to oversee his estate.
Nelson is Prince’s only surviving full sibling. He also has three surviving half siblings. Prince was not married and has no children that anyone knows of. Nelson’s paperwork requested that Bremer Trust be named the executor of Prince’s estate, indicating that Bremer provided financial services to him over the years.
When asked to comment, L. Londell McMillan, Prince’s longtime lawyer and former manager (who has also played a role in the estates of Michael Jackson, Notorious B.I.G. and Sammy Davis, Jr) declined to speak on the existence of a will or what the future may hold for Prince’s estate, but did say “I want to make sure his legacy is respected and protected no matter what role I play.”
Although an official will has yet to surface, it does not mean that one does not exist. Under Minnesota law, a person can file a will with probate court in secret. If this is what Prince did, then the will will be released and an executor will be named as soon as a death certificate is filed. This has not yet happened as the medical examiner is waiting on the toxicology report from the autopsy performed last week (it was inconclusive), which could take weeks.
Investigators are now turning their focus to how painkillers could have played a role in Prince’s latest hospitalization, string of health problems and ultimately his death. Days before he was found dead, Prince’s plane was forced to make an emergency landing for medical reasons and the singer was reportedly given a shot of Narcan, an opioid antidote.
It is not immediately apparent how much Prince’s estate is worth. His albums and touring, released over the past four decades, have raked in millions. His extensive real estate holdings, which included the Paisley Park complex outside of Minneapolis, totaled around $27 million. Like other musicians that have passed such as Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, Prince is expected to become a huge non-living earner. In the days following his sudden death, three Prince albums surged into the Top 10 of the Billboard 200: The Very Best of Prince topped the charts with 179,000 copies sold, Purple Rain took the Number Two spot with 69,000 copies and The Hits/The B-Sides fell at Number Six.
The music community paid tribute to Prince via social media, which you can read about here.
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