New York Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog
We’ve already discussed Prince’s passing previously here on the Estate Planning blog. Prince, one of the most successful music artists of all time, passed away without leaving a will. This means that he died intestate, and the laws of the state he was domiciled in dictate who will inherit from his estate. That almost universally means that your closest living relatives, usually a spouse or child, will inherit in an intestate situation, but this can get tricky. In Prince’s case, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and now self-proclaimed children have come out of the woodwork to lay claim to the late singer’s vast fortune and catalogue of music. Prince has no acknowledged surviving children, who would be near the front of the line in an intestate situation. So how exactly do you go about proving you’re the son of a decedent?
Acknowledged Children, Have No Fear
New York intestacy law is very clear on who will inherit when the deceased is intestate. If there is a spouse but no children the spouse inherits everything. If there are children but no spouse, the children inherit everything. If there is a spouse and children, the spouse inherits the first $50,000 plus half of the balance of the estate, with the children splitting the rest.