Musician Prince performs onstage at the 36th Annual NAACP Image Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 19, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. (Credit: Getty Images)
Sunday is the third anniversary of the death of recording artist Prince and the legal fight over his estate – including a 10,000-square-foot Caribbean villa – could continue for years to come.
When Prince died at age 57 of an opioid overdose, he left behind an estate with an estimated value of $200 million that includes the villa and master tapes of his recordings, according to the New York Post.
His heirs said in a probate-court petition that they are challenging the court-appointed administrator of the estate, which has charged $45 million in administrative expenses since Prince died in 2016 at his Paisley Park mansion near Minneapolis.
Comerica, a Dallas bank, has been the estate administrator since succeeding Bremer Trust, a financial institution in St. Paul, Minnesota, that served temporarily over nine months in that role.
Prince’s heirs claimed in a petition filed in February that Comerica is behind in making $31 million of estate tax payments and interest is accumulating on the unpaid balance.
Comerica insisted in court filings that it is well qualified to continue as the administrator of Prince’s estate, but the bank also acknowledged that “the heirs are understandably frustrated that, three years after their brother’s death, the estate is not ready to be closed.”
Efforts to grab part of Prince’s estate began immediately after his death in April 2016, when more than 45 people claimed to be his heirs. Prince had no will, so a judge named the “Purple Rain” singer’s six siblings as his heirs. [NYP] – Mike Seemuth
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