Prince’s sister says the superstar musician had no known will and she’s filed paperwork asking to be appointed executor of his estate.
Tyka Nelson filed the paperwork Tuesday in Carver County probate court in Minneapolis. Prince died at age 57 on Thursday at his estate in suburban Minneapolis. No cause of death has yet been released. Nelson is his only surviving full sibling.
Nelson says in her filing that an emergency exists because immediate action is necessary to manage Prince’s business interests.
With some $27 million in property and an outpouring of nostalgia over the pop star’s death, Prince’s heirs could stand to inherit a small fortune. The size of the fortune isn’t clear, and recent disputes suggest money was tight.
When he was alive, Prince made hundreds of millions of dollars — for record companies, concert venues and others. That much is certain. What’s less clear is how much he left behind.
Less than a week after the pop star died, an outpouring of grief and nostalgia prompted fans to buy 2.3 million of his songs in three days. And Prince owned a dozen properties in and around his famous Paisley Park complex in suburban Minneapolis. Records on file with Carver County, where Paisley Park is located, show that he was up to date on his property taxes when he died.
Estimates of how much licensing his personal brand will bring in after death reach to the purple clouds. “He was as big as they get,” said Mark Roesler, chief executive of CMG Worldwide, which handles licensing for the estates of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and other late stars.
Roesler estimates Prince’s post-mortem earnings will match top-earning dead celebrities like Elvis Presley, whose estate made $55 million in 2015, according to Forbes magazine. “Will there be a business built up around Prince 60 years from now like James Dean? The answer is unequivocally yes,” said Roesler.
