Pop star Prince left no will when he died in 2016, setting off a years-long legal fight over how to split up his multimillion-dollar estate. Now a new fight is brewing over the will of Alfred Jackson, Prince's half-brother and one of his key heirs, who died last summer.
The Star Tribune has the details — and there are a lot of them — about the growing dispute over Prince's fortune and who gets what. Since Prince didn't detail how to divide his wealth, a court has been working to settle his holdings — which include his Paisley Park studios-turned-museum, real estate and rights to his music — among his six blood relatives.
But one of his half-siblings, Alfred Jackson, died last August, and now some new, unrelated parties are making their own claims to the estate. Just prior to his death, Jackson had signed most of his share of the rights to the estate to Primary Wave, a New York entertainment company that also owns a stake in the estate of Whitney Houston (it's the company behind the hologram tour of the late R&B singer). Prince's sister, Tyka Nelson, also has a deal with Primary Wave.
In a December court filing, Primary Wave argued that it should effectively be counted among Prince's legal heirs. An attorney for some of Prince's other heirs is challenging its deal with Jackson, saying the deceased Jackson had a history of mental health problems.
Unlike Prince, Jackson did have a will and assigned his remaining estate assets to Raffles Van Exel, an entertainment consultant who also was connected with Houston and the family of Michael Jackson.
This article originally appeared in Business Journals.
