American music superstar, Prince left no known will when he died on April 21.
His sister, Tyka Nelson, said this in court documents on Tuesday listing his six siblings or half-siblings as heirs to a legacy estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
In her court filings, Nelson said she did not know of the existence of a will and had “no reason to believe that the Decedent executed testamentary documents in any form.”
Nelson asked that a special administrator be appointed to handle Prince’s affairs and that she be appointed to probate his estate.
She proposed the Bremer Bank in Minnesota as special administrator, saying it had done business for years with Prince.
Michael Kosnitzky, a New York- and Miami-based attorney who advises the extremely wealthy, said he was surprised Prince died without a will, given the artist’s tendency to control his image, name and recordings.
“That he would put himself in a position that he would lose control of those things at death I found very surprising,” Kosnitzky said.
Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson, was married and divorced twice.
Under Minnesota law, Prince’s assets are likely to be split evenly between the siblings.
According to Prince’s first manager, Owen Husney, the value of his music catalogue alone has been estimated at over $500 million.
“That included potential licensing rights for film, TV, commercials and videogames that Prince rarely exploited, “Husney said.
Since his death, sales of his albums have soared, as more than 2.3 million songs and some 580,000 albums have sold since Thursday, according to Nielsen Music.
Aside from royalties from his more than 30 albums, Prince regained ownership of his master recordings after a dispute with his Warner Bros, music label.
He was also said to have a cache of unheard recordings, including an album cut with late jazz trumpet great Miles Davis.
The influential singer, and songwriter behind hits like “Purple Rain”, was found dead at age 57 in an elevator at his Paisley Park Studios compound in a Minneapolis suburb.
NAN reports that Prince died without any biological child of his. (Reuters/NAN)