Prince: What is your legacy? (Will vs Living Trust)

Prince, the iconic singer-songwriter, musician, artist and seven time Grammy winner passed on April 21, 2016. His death conjures up nostalgic memories, but also makes us question what effect we will leave when we die. What will be our impact and how can we make sure the people we love are taken care of.

We asked our senior financial advisor, Marie Deary, “Why do we appreciate and mourn all artists like Prince so dearly? Could it be because they helped us understand ourselves better by asking the tough questions?”

“A judge has determined that Prince left behind no living trust or will and the bank the singer trusted has been appointed to manage his assets. His estate is at risk of going through probate.

Probate is the legal process that inventories and distributes a person's property after death. Many people aim to avoid probate because it is time consuming and expensive.

When a person dies, the property and assets they owned must go somewhere. If they died with a will or trust, their property will pass according to their express wishes. However, if they failed to create a will or trust, their property will pass via the California laws (your State) of intestate succession. Basically, this means that if you don’t create a will, the state will create one for you.

It is never too early to make a living trust or will.”

We can help you manage your financial fears today, to avoid complications in the future. Set up a consultation with us today, and we will help you plan for your future.

We ask our clients the same question and here are their responses.

“Prince is mourned by such a diverse group of people because he was not only a musical genius but because he was able to transcend color, gender, and identity barriers that limited people from becoming their true selves. There's a little bit of Prince in everyone, and when we lost of him we lost a piece of ourselves.”

“Music I will say is medicine to the soul. Sometimes you listen to some lyrics and you go like wow does this artiste knows am going through this. Music heals, comfort and make you understand life better in certain ways. Most of the time we do appreciate artiste or mourn them because usually we look up to them and how they have impact on us.”

“Well, in my case i think we mourn artists because they enhance our lives with their art. They make us forget our problems even if it is for a couple of minutes. Our lives would be dull if we did not have music to entertain us. Also we live in a celebrity culture were the media inform us every minute about celebrities that we feel that they are part of our lives. Even the press-shy ones like Prince.”

“I do not think they help us understand ourselves. I just believe they remind us of maybe what we went through or going through. Honestly the music today only pollutes our minds. “

“Music can take you back to a moment in time...make you feel exactly how you were feeling at a certain moment. There are a lot of songs that make you say, damn...they wrote that about me. Or wow, they went through the same thing I went through. Music is comfort. It makes you feel good. And when you grow to love an artist, when they're gone you feel like you lost someone you knew.”