As we discussed last time, when a well known celebrity dies, after asking “How?”, we ask, “How much did they leave and to whom?”
Rumors are that Whitney Houston left a multimillion dollar estate to her only child, an 18 year old daughter. This is an estate that should continue to grow with the sale of licensed products of the famous singer and sometimes actress.
The rumor also is that she left a Will. Let’s hope not. Wills must go through the cost, delay, and publicity of Probate Court. Also, they are easier to attack and try to set aside. We know that Whitney had an adversarial and litigious history with her volatile ex-husband, Bobby Brown. Also, most Wills have outright distributions to the beneficiary. Rarely, do you want to leave millions of dollars to an 18 year old girl. Not when you can avoid the delay, cost, and publicity of Probate Court by using a full funded protective Revocable Living Trust.
Hopefully, with such a Trust you have the assets held in a sub-Trust for the 18 year old daughter so that the assets are used for her care, but are not under her direct control. This helps keep the youngster from losing her inheritance by squander, lawsuit, or later divorce. It would also protect it from her wayward father.
If Whitney Houston had good advisors, they would have directed her to an experienced Estate Planning attorney that limited their legal practice to Estate Planning. Together they would create a custom Estate Plan that would avoid Probate costs, Estate Taxes, and protect her daughter from herself, predators, and creditors. This could be accomplished with some work.
We’ll soon see if she and her trusted advisors “did the work” to protect the superstar’s life earnings and her daughter.