3 Probate Lessons from Bobbi Kristina Brown: and what we can learn from Whitney Houston’s daughter’s tragic tale
The media is reporting that probate litigation may erupt now that Whitney Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, is on life support and her chances of survival have been described as dismal. Reports ask who willcontrol the medical and health care decisions of the daughter of Bobby Brown andWhitney Houston and who will inherit a reported $20 million inheritance or trust fundwhich she got from the estate of Whitney Houston.
3 Probate Lessons from Bobbi Kristina Brown
- What can we learn from the tragic tale of Bobbi Kristina Brown who supposedly inherited millions of dollars and a trust fund from her late mother, pop diva Whitney Houston?
- Are there actually estate planning lessons to be learned or probate best practices for our own estates and estate plans? Indeed. Just consider:
Probate Best Practices: How to plan your estate and safeguard your estate plan
- The case of Whitney Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown reflects what can happen when families fight over blood & money
- Bobbi Kristina Brown remains on life support while the media debates whether family members will keep, or dis-continue, life support but with medical reports suggesting survival on her own is dismal
- Bobbi Kristina Brown is said to inherit, perhaps, $20 Million from her late mother,Whitney Houston’s estate
- Some of that inheritance from Whitney Houston’s estate appears to be held in trust, which has the media asking
- What happens to Bobbi Kristina Brown’s trust fund and inheritance if she passes away
- Who will control Bobbi Kristina’s estate if she had no will?
- Estate planning and probate attorneys point to this case for important, but actually, quite simple, estate plan steps which everyone can take to give more order to your legal and financial affairs and attempt to minimize family fights— probate litigation
- Can you–right now while you are alive– give greater certainty to your estate plan ?
What Can Bobbi Kristina Brown teach us about our own estate plans?
- 1st, consider pre-determining what medical treatment, such as life support you want, or don’t want, if you are injured and your chance of survival is poor.
- Do you want your life sustained by artificial means such as a respirator or other medical device, or do you want to die what some refer to as, a dignified death?
- Consider a living will which sets forth your intent, or a do not resuscitate order, also known as a DNR
- 2nd, consider : who will make health care decisions for you?
- Who do you want to make health care decisions for you if you cannot. Who will uphold your wishes and who do you trust to make treatment, and end of life, decisions if you are not able to?
- Consider a health care proxy or advanced health care directive or other health care durable power of attorney. Although different states have different names for thesehealth care legal documents, they tend to do the same thing: permit you to appoint someone – empower someone-to make your medical and health care decisions if you cannot.
- But, everyone knows that you can challenge these, right? Do you know the best ways to make your health care documents and medical care documents bulletproof?
- What is your intent and who do you want in charge?
- Finally, in your estate plan, carefully select – and write down – your alternate orsuccessor beneficiaries.
- If Whitney Houston is not living, then who inherits her estate?
- If Bobbi Kristina is not living, then who inherits her trust?
- Taking a few minutes to consider “who gets what”, even when it seems unlikely or remote, gives your estate plan more certainty of where your money is going if your first plan doesn’t work out.
- Consider: do you want your ex husband to inherit your daughter’s trust if your daughter unexpectedly passes away? Why is this important?
- Because most estate planners will tell you that young adults of Bobbi Kristina Brown’s age don’t plan their estates and may die without a will, which means that their father, Bobby Brown, might end up inheriting money that Whitney Houston never wanted him to have. Is there a way around this? Yes.
- Whitney Houston’s trust for Bobbi Kristina can name alternative or successor beneficiaries: if Bobbi Kristina is not living, then the trust goes to………………..
- In the end, media reports suggest that if or when Bobbi Kristina Brown passes away, the family, and perhaps Bobby Brown, the father of Whitney Houston’s daughter, may fight to control Bobbi Kristina Brown’s estate, trust or property.
Recent media stories about the potential probate lawsuits among family members of Bobbi Kristina Brown: