When Doves Cry (and Lawyers Get Rich): Prince's Missing Will
When Prince died suddenly in April 2016 at age 57, he left behind one of the most valuable music catalogs in history and no will. What followed was a six-year legal battle that offers a stark lesson for anyone who assumes estate planning is only for the ultra-wealthy or the elderly.
No Will, No Say
Prince died without a will or trust of any kind. Under Minnesota law, that meant the state's intestacy statute, not Prince, decided who would inherit his fortune. Since he had no spouse and no living children, his estate passed to his siblings and half-siblings as his legal heirs.
Initially, six half-siblings were identified as heirs. Over the following years, two of them (Alfred Jackson and John R. Nelson) died before the estate was ever settled, further complicating who was entitled to what and passing disputed shares down to their own descendants. See our
A Six-Year, Multimillion-Dollar Legal Fight
Without a will naming an executor or laying out his wishes, the court had to appoint an administrator (Comerica Bank & Trust) to manage the estate while the legal process played out. What should have been a straightforward transfer of assets instead became a sprawling legal battle involving:
Competing claims from people asserting they were Prince's biological children or spouse
Years of disputes among the six confirmed heirs over how to manage and monetize the estate
A prolonged fight with the IRS over the estate's taxable value
The estate's value was initially estimated at up to $300 million shortly after Prince's death. The IRS and Comerica eventually settled on an official valuation of $156.4 million in early 2022- nearly six years after Prince died, and only after the IRS dropped a $6.4 million accuracy-related penalty it had originally levied against the estate for undervaluation.
Legal fees, accounting costs, and administrative expenses consumed tens of millions of dollars over the course of the dispute- money that would otherwise have gone to Prince's heirs. The estate spent nearly $9 million in administrative costs and tax penalties alone, plus heavy legal fees. Large portions of land in Chanhassen, Minnesota, had to be sold off to cover tax and legal debts.
The Settlement: Splitting a Legacy
In July 2022, a Minnesota judge finally approved a settlement. The settlement included $6million in cash and valuable music rights and other intangible assets. The estate was split almost evenly between:
Prince Legacy LLC — representing the interests of three of Prince's oldest heirs (Sharon Nelson, John Nelson, and Norrine Nelson, or their families)
Prince Oat Holdings LLC — owned by music publisher Primary Wave, which had spent years acquiring the ownership stakes of the other three heirs (Tyka Nelson, Omarr Baker, and Alfred Jackson's family) in exchange for cash.
Primary Wave ended up with roughly 42–50% ownership of Prince's estate, including a stake in his song catalog, master recordings, and the rights to his name and likeness — control that, had Prince left a plan, might have stayed entirely within his own family or been directed exactly as he wished.
Even after the 2022 settlement, the story isn’t fully over.
In January 2024, L. Londell McMillan and Charles Spicer Jr., former business advisers to Prince, filed a lawsuit alleging four of Prince's family members (his half-sisters Sharon Nelson and Norrine Nelson, his niece Breanna Nelson, and his nephew Allen Nelson) improperly attempted to remove McMillan and Spicer (who own a 10% stake in the company).
According to the lawsuit, these family members sought to change the company's bylaws and oust McMillan and Spicer, violating the group's operating agreement and potentially harm efforts to preserve and protect Prince's legacy. The lawsuit further alleges that Sharon and Breanna Nelson attempted to sell their shares, which would upset the current 50-50 balance of the Prince estate.
This latest lawsuit is a reminder that unresolved family estate disputes can resurface even years after a "final" resolution.
The Takeaway
Prince's situation is often framed as a cautionary tale for celebrities, but the underlying lesson applies to anyone with assets, a business, family, or a body of work they care about:
Intestacy law doesn't know your wishes. Without a will or trust, state law decides who inherits …and it may not reflect what you would have chosen.
No plan means no privacy. Prince's finances, family relationships, and asset values were litigated in open court for six years, generating headlines the entire time.
The cost isn't just money; it's time and family strain. Even with significant resources at their disposal, Prince's heirs spent the better part of a decade in legal conflict instead of grieving and moving forward.
"I'll get to it later" is a plan too… just not a good one. Prince had years of opportunity to create an estate plan and didn't. Most people assume they have more time than they do.
A comprehensive estate plan is one of the most direct ways to make sure your assets go where you want, your family avoids unnecessary conflict, and your legacy is handled the way you intend, not however a court decides.