Published in WealthManagement.com | Estate Planning
By Anna Sulking Stern on July 20th, 2021
There’s finally a happy ending in the contentious nearly 15-year battle over James Brown’s estate between his girlfriend and his children.
According to The New York Times, a settlement has been reached after nearly two months of mediation talks. Though the details of the agreement remain a secret, Russell L. Bauknight, the estate’s administrator, says that it will resolve most of the outstanding litigation, except for one suit by one of the estate’s former executors.
This settlement means that the estate’s administrators may now finally be able to fulfill Brown’s dying wish—one which he made very clear in his will—to fund a trust that would provide scholarships for underprivileged children in South Carolina and Georgia… Will his charitable wishes finally be fulfilled?
The biggest question regarding whether the charitable trust can be funded is whether there are sufficient liquid assets left in the estate. Years of contentious litigation likely drained much of the liquidity out of the estate, to pay the fees and costs for the administrators and their attorneys. The remaining assets in Brown’s estate likely consist largely of intellectual property, which would need to be sold or otherwise converted to a source of liquid assets for a charitable trust to be properly funded.
Andrew G. Smith, Associate, Weinstock Manion
