Who is likely to dispute a Will? The Michael Jackson Estate Dispute shows that just about every family member may challenge a will, for different reasons!

Probate and inheritance disputes can break up family ties. Often poor   estate planning is rationalized by thetestator because “their family is to in sync to fight over money.” This misconception is not only false, I can actually debunk it with examples. Another common rationalization is that your estate is not that valuable to your wealthy relatives. This too simply is not the case, almost ever. Here is my breakdown of the most common players in a probate dispute. As a case study I have broken down who the players in the Michael Jackson Estate were and what they did to prolong probate.

• Michael Jackson, a famous pop singer, died in late 2009 leaving an estate worth approximately 1.178 billion dollars. (That’s right billion! This does not take into account though that half of that was owed to creditors)
• Jackson was survived by his parents, Joe and Katherine Jackson and his brothers and sisters.
• Jackson was also survived by his children.
• The disputes in this estate were diverse, some were surrounding who would be guardian of the Jackson kids and who would inherit all that money.
• This case was particularly interesting because the litigants used social media to release various complaints about how the executors were handling the assets.
• All in all there were about nine interested parties that controlled the litigation.

The Jackson debate debunks the myths I was talking about earlier, and a lot can be taken away for your own estate planning.

1. The Jackson’s Have Money. Furthermore, Jackson’s estate was ravaged by debt, eating up almost half the estate before attorney fees. This still left the entire family squabbling for every penny. The old saying is blood is thicker than water but in probateand much of life, money is thicker than them all.
2. Family Ties Don’t Eliminate Disputes. I don’t know if the Jackson family had dinner every Sunday, I doubt they did. But I do know of families who have and no longer can look each other in the eye after ugly probate battles. Most people think that this is the rare occurrence but its actually the most common. We hear a lot about the will dispute of a rich uncle who left his estate to a kooky charity but that’s because its news! Same with the stories of caretakers who take advantage. The fact is more caretakers are family members!

Most people think it wont happen to them. They use rationales like my family is tight knit or I do not have any assets. But you do have assets, even if they are just the clothes on your back. Even if you consider all your assets junk, one mans trash is another’s treasure. Do not leave your family with more grief and tension than you have too, plan an estate plan today.