|
Pictured
is
Paisley
Park
Studios
and home
in
Chanhassen
where
Prince
was
found
dead on
Thursday
morning.
Prince's
sister
says the
superstar
musician
had no
known
will and
filed
paperwork
Tuesday
asking a
Minnesota
court to
appoint
a
special
administrator
to
oversee
his
estate,
though
the size
of his
fortune
is
unclear.
(Photo
by
Carlos
Gongalez/Star
Tribune) |
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Prince's
sister
says
musician
had no
known
will
By RYAN
NAKASHIMA
and
STEVE
KARNOWSKI
Associated
Press
MINNEAPOLIS
-
Prince's
sister
says the
superstar
musician
had no
known
will and
filed
paperwork
Tuesday
asking a
Minnesota
court to
appoint
a
special
administrator
to
oversee
his
estate,
though
the size
of his
fortune
is
unclear.
Tyka
Nelson,
Prince's
only
surviving
full
sibling,
said in
her
filing
that
immediate
action
was
necessary
to
manage
Prince's
business
interests
following
his
death
last
week.
Prince
made
hundreds
of
millions
of
dollars
for
record
companies,
concert
venues
and
others,
and he
owned
about
$27
million
in
property
in
Minnesota.
Nelson
asked
that
Bremer
Trust, a
corporate
trust
company,
be named
administrator
of the
estate.
The
court
documents
say
Bremer
Bank
provided
financial
services
to
Prince
for many
years.
Nelson's
filing
said
both
Prince's
assets
and
debts
are
unknown,
but said
he had
"substantial
assets"
that
require
protection.
The
filing
comes
less
than a
week
after
the pop
star
died
Thursday
at his
home in
suburban
Minneapolis.
The
outpouring
of grief
and
nostalgia
prompted
fans to
buy 2.3
million
of his
songs in
three
days.
Prince
owned a
dozen
properties
in and
around
his
famous
Paisley
Park
complex
in
suburban
Minneapolis:
mostly
rural
pieces
of land
and some
houses
for
family
members.
Public
records
show
those
properties
were
worth
about
$27
million
in 2016.
Estimates
of how
much
licensing
his
personal
brand
will
bring in
after
death
reach to
the
purple
clouds.
"He was
as big
as they
get,"
said
Mark
Roesler,
chief
executive
of CMG
Worldwide,
which
handles
licensing
for the
estates
of
Marilyn
Monroe,
James
Dean and
other
late
stars.
Roesler
estimates
Prince's
post-mortem
earnings
will
match
top-earning
dead
celebrities
like
Elvis
Presley,
whose
estate
made $55
million
in 2015,
according
to
Forbes
magazine.
"Will
there be
a
business
built up
around
Prince
60 years
from now
like
James
Dean?
The
answer
is
unequivocally
yes,"
Roesler
said
Friday.
If
Prince
filed a
will or
created
a trust,
heirs to
his
future
fortune
would be
known.
But no
such
documents
have yet
turned
up.
Under
Minnesota
law, a
person
can file
a will
with
probate
court in
secret.
If
Prince
did so,
the fact
one
exists
would
become
public
once a
death
certificate
is
filed,
but the
medical
examiner
has not
yet
issued
one for
Prince.
An
autopsy
was
conducted
Friday
and his
remains
were
cremated
Saturday.
L.
Londell
McMillan,
a
longtime
lawyer
and
former
manager
of the
superstar,
declined
to
comment
Monday
to The
Associated
Press
about
whether
the
entertainer
had a
will or
any
other
particulars
regarding
his
estate,
but
added:
"I want
to make
sure his
legacy
is
respected
and
protected
no
matter
what
role I
play."
McMillan
was
Michael
Jackson's
lawyer
and
played a
role in
his
estate,
as well
as those
of
rapper
Notorious
B.I.G.
and
Sammy
Davis
Jr.
Several
other
attorneys
who have
done
work for
Prince
in the
past -
including
Alan
Eidsness,
who
handled
his 2006
divorce
from
Manuela
Testolini
Nelson -
said
they
were not
handling
his
estate.
Wealthy
people
usually
create
trusts
to avoid
the
public
spectacle
of
probate
court,
and it
would be
unusual
if
Prince
had not
done so,
according
to Irwin
Feinberg,
a Los
Angeles
trust
and
probate
lawyer
who
spoke do
the AP
before
Nelson
filed
her
court
documents.
Prince
wasn't
married
and had
no known
living
children.
Nelson
is his
only
full-sibling,
though
he has
five
half-siblings
(two
other
half-siblings
have
died)
who
could
share in
his
estate
if he
has no
will.
The AP
did not
find
liens or
mortgages
on any
of his
properties,
which
range
from a
sprawling
160-acre
piece of
grassland
between
Lake
Lucy and
Lake
Ann, to
a
three-bedroom
bungalow
in
Minneapolis
that is
home to
his half
brother,
Omarr
Baker.
Prince
sold
over 100
million
albums
on his
lifetime,
according
to
Warner
Music
Group.
And
Pollstar,
a
concert
industry
magazine,
said
that in
the
years
that his
tours
topped
the
charts -
10 years
over
four
decades
performing
- the
tours
raked in
$225
million
in
ticket
sales.
His
best-earning
touring
year,
when he
took in
$87.4
million,
was
2004,
the year
he was
inducted
into the
Rock and
Roll
Hall of
Fame and
two
decades
after
the
soundtrack
to
"Purple
Rain"
went
multi-platinum.
But what
remained
in
Prince's
hands
is, by
any
estimate,
less
than the
sum of
ticket
and
album
sales.
In every
record
deal, a
cut goes
to the
label,
background
performers
and
music
publishers,
though
Prince
published
and
wrote
his own
songs.
Concert
ticket
revenue
is split
among
the
venue,
the
promoter,
staff
and the
cost of
travelling
around.
And
prince
was
known to
throw
expensive
parties.
Court
battles
in
recent
years
suggest
money
wasn't
free
flowing.
In April
2013,
Prince
lost a
suit
filed in
New York
State's
Supreme
Court
brought
by
perfume
maker
Revelations
Perfume
and
Cosmetics
Inc. for
failing
to
promote
the
"3121"
perfume
line
named
after
his
album
from
2006 and
which he
touted,
but only
once, in
a
massive
concert
that
started
July 7,
2007
near
Macy's
in
downtown
Minneapolis
and
ended at
5 a.m.
at the
First
Avenue
club, a
famous
venue
from
"Purple
Rain."
He was
ordered
to pay
$4.4
million;
he never
did.
Instead,
plaintiff
lawyers
went
searching
for
assets,
found
about $3
million
in
various
Minnesota
bank
accounts,
and used
court
orders
to
freeze
them,
according
to Brian
Slipakoff,
a New
York
lawyer
who
represented
the
perfume
maker.
Prince
settled
for a
lower
amount
shortly
after.
"It
doesn't
suggest
there
was
oodles
of cash
lying
around,"
Slipakoff
said
last
week.
Prince
encountered
tax
difficulties
several
times
over the
years,
including
owing
back
taxes to
France
in 2012,
which he
paid up,
and
overdue
property
taxes
around
$450,000
in 2010.
In 2013,
the IRS
filed a
federal
tax lien
against
him in
Carver
County
Court in
Minnesota
for $1.6
million.
What
happened
with
that
case is
unclear.
Records
on file
with
Carver
County,
where
Paisley
Park is
located,
show
that he
was up
to date
on his
property
taxes
when he
died.
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