It’s that time of year again! In the spirit of Halloween, here are the celebrity estate planning horror stories for 2026, where I go over celebrity estate planning gone wrong:
- Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, died with a 30-year-old trust, a 9-year-old daughter, and a 3-year-old marriage. I’m sure you can see the problem here, and it should come as no surprise that his widow filed for a share of the estate as an omitted spouse, as well as a share for their daughter as an omitted child. In addition, his widow also filed a breach of contract claim, stating that he had made a lot of promises in their pre-nup, like taking out a life insurance policy payable to her and compensating her as his chief of staff, that he never fulfilled. Malcolm-Jamal’s mother, the trustee of the trust, is working on a settlement to give a share to his daughter, but the widow’s claims for her own share are still in dispute. The lesson? Update your trust after major life events, and don’t wait to fulfill your promises.
- Chadwick Boseman, the actor who played the Black Panther in the Marvel movies, died in 2020 with no will or trust. In 2022, the Probate Court ordered the estate to be fully distributed. Six years later, it’s still not distributed, and Chadwick’s siblings are petitioning the court on behalf of his parents for full distribution, removal of Chadwick’s widow as administrator, and a full accounting of everything she’s done with the money since she was appointed the administrator. The are several lessons here, the first being the obvious one of getting a will or trust in the first place. The second is to act promptly when the court tells you to distribute money; beneficiaries rarely are patient once they know to expect a check in the mail. The third is to be transparent, especially if there’s a legitimate reason for the delay.
- The much beloved Dolly Parton did a lot of work prior to her death to make sure her affairs were in order and there wouldn’t be any fighting over her estate. At this time, it appears that she accomplished the first, but the second is now in question. Her legacy corporation, She’s Alive LLC, fired Brian Seaver, Dolly’s nephew and formerly head of her security, on allegations of threatening behavior and attempts to extort money from her corporation. Seaver claims the messages were intended to be humorous and used long-standing nicknames. The lesson? Be careful what you put in writing, especially with a nickname like Killer.
- In another example of how long probate can drag on for, Michael Jackson’s estate is still in probate today (if you’re not keeping track, he died in 2009). Michael’s daughter is petitioning the Probate Court, claiming the executors are not managing the estate properly and that the executor compensation and other expenses are excessive. The court agreed on the second part, and ordered $625,000 of “bonus compensation” paid to outside counsel returned to the estate. This lesson is for the administrators of a probate estate: don’t distribute money without court permission, especially bonuses or “extraordinary” fees.
- Last but not least, we have an update on the estate of Rob Reiner. Rob and his wife were murdered in 2025, and their son Nick has been accused and is on trial for their deaths. Since California does not allow murderers to inherit from their victims (“the slayer statute”), the estate administration is paused pending the outcome of this trial. However, Nick’s parents created a trust for him some time ago, which was at least partly funded by his grandfather Carl Reiner. This trust was supposed to have made a distribution of about $558,000 to Nick back in 2023, a distribution that was never made. Nick is petitioning the court to order this distribution because the money was owed before the alleged crime, and the slayer statute would not apply to any money that came from his grandfather. (Also, he needs the money to pay for his criminal defense.) The trustee of this trust is fighting the petition, claiming the slayer statute does apply and that Nick refused the distribution in 2023, a claim Nick denies. Is there a lesson here? I don’t think adding a slayer provision to your trust is the best move for most families, so the only real lesson I can think of is to document the reason why a scheduled distribution wasn’t made.
The estates of the rich and famous are always interesting, but they didn’t have to turn into celebrity estate planning horror stories. Anyone can prepare and protect their estate before it gets scary. If the 2026 edition prompts you to think about your own estate planning, you’re welcome to reach out to me at kaway@kawaylaw.com.
