February 16, 2015

The sole heir to Whitney Houston’s estate, Bobbi Kristina Brown, has been in a medically-induced coma since the end of January. The $20 million worth of assets inside the estate is now in question, especially since recent reports indicate her family intends to remove Bobbi from life support. The estate includes all of the royalties linked to Whitney’s image, likeness, and music.

If Bobbi does pass away, the next in line is Cissy Houston and her two sons. Bobbi already inherited $2 million when she turned 20, with another 15 percent to be passed to her at age 25 and the remaining amount to be given to her at age 30.

A lesson learned from this estate is that a revocable living trust can be a valuable tool for shielding private business from public eyes. The fact that so much of this is being reported by the media gives the involved individuals practically no confidentiality or privacy. Using a revocable living trust may have been a better option if they wished to keep Houston’s estate details in the family.

Another option would have been to use dynasty trust to hold the assets inside them forever rather than using the incremental ages release that Houston’s estate employed. If you’re concerned about passing on major assets to children with some control over the process and protecting your privacy, it’s important to engage with an estate planning professional as soon as possible.