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well, WTF, I'm catching up on this thread and it became one about segregation and black maids?

Let me say, catching up here:

Evany - you live in Canada, did you live in the US during segregation? Did you live in the US after the Civil Rights bill? can you personally say that you lived the differences and know those nuances? I think from your perspective as a learned academic reading about it just doesn't equate to living it......was MJ as important to civil rights as MLK? IMHO, no, but he certainly ranks up there directly behind him....my son was born the year the schools in my city were desegregated......he never experienced what I did BUT he loved MTV....and in his opinion MJ paved the way for other blacks to get major airtime on MTV and VH1 - which none of them were getting until MJ and Thriller.....and this from a kid who had the first Rap radio station on the internet and has a rap group.....MJ helped finish what Elvis started - taking what was generally considered as "black" music and made it mainstream and non threatening. (edited to add: MJ was born in the segregated US of the 1950's and began performing when we were segregated with "black" venues, "black" hotels/motels, "black" restrooms, "black" water fountains, so IMO he straddled both of those worlds....he watched the US change from the perspective of a black man - something not one of us can relate to)

Evany - have you ever practiced law in the US? or International Law? my, my you really seem to speak from a position of authority about US probate law and California probate law.....care to enlighten us as to your experience in that area? I just finished - yesterday - an estate return for which I am the executor.....I'm trustee of multiple clients trusts and exector as well.....in Texas, you can name a guardian in your will, but the courts have final say......they always have final say......any will can be contested, any section of a will can be contested, and any will can be overruled by a judge.....but it is incredibly expensive for both sides.....but what is interesting is that while those contesting must pay their own legal bills, the executor/guardian they are contesting (named in the will) have their legal bills paid by the estate....so those that are after an estate in which they didn't receive all they wanted actually can deplete it while fighting over it.....the naming of a guardian in a will does not force those named to be guardian.....while the judges give a great deal of weight to the parents last wishes, they have the awful task of looking at it from all angles and can overrule a will as to the guardianship....

I always find it interesting that those who profess to not read tabloids bring up tabloid trash to foster their OPINION on another individual....this thread has become a mirror of another one in which I participated where people pronounced their personal opionion on a father because of an incident.....and made extreme pronouncements about an individual they had never met.

I'm a firm believer that until you have walked in someones shoes it impossible to know how they feel, how they acted, and why they acted.

This was an incredibly talented man who lived a life in a fishbowl....because his life was not what someone considers their "norm", then he's a pervert....how can any one of you know how profoundly his childhood effected him? or the measures he took to try to "get over it"?....or his thoughts about his father? photos of the man walking down the street with his father tell you absolutely nothing about their personal relationship.

I personally have had clients settle an issue out of court when the lawsuit was totally unfounded because of its effect on their family, their life, and the cost.....and just last week Larry King said that he was going to testify in the molestation trial.....he was at a restaurant and overheard
two attorneys talking about how they were going to milk MJ for millions (I'm paraphrasing).....now IMHO, I'm going to believe Larry King did overhear this and felt strongly enough that he was going to testify under oath and the threat of committing perjury.....and I'll believe that over tabloid trash......I have absolutely no idea what the final truth is in that matter.....but when someone sues for $'s against a rich man I'm usually suspicious as to their motives.

On another note, the MJ estate will have 9 months in which to do a preliminary calculation of his estate value as the estate taxes are due then....they can receive a 6 months extension to actually file the return (not public record), and in some very limited instances get a delay in estate tax payments....considering how ill-liquid his estate is, his executors have a mountain to climb in valuations, renogitiating notes, and probably borrowing money to actually make the estate tax payments while at the same time trying to deal with the legal mess.....in Texas, the guardianship is handled by an entirely different court than probate issues, so it can become very very expensive and time consuming to deal with all of it.

The method he used to name his beneficiaries in a trust and not in a will is a very common one.....probate filings of a will are public record....simultaneously setting up a trust to receive all the assets of your estate (as named in the will), keeps the details of your beneficiaries, their allocations, etc totally secret from the world at large.....trust documents are not usually filed in any court of law and only the attorneys, those named, and the IRS are privy to the details....so unless something extraordinary happens where this document is actually filed in court we will never truly know its contents.....in Texas you do have to file an "inventory" of all assets passing via the will (that is assets that do not have a specific beneficiary listed directly with the asset - the most common are retirement plans and life insurance policies - but grantor trusts can have the same issue) with the court - and I think California has the same requirement....but since we do not know how he actually had his assets titled we can't know if these will ever be made public.

I did hear mention somewhere that even if his record sales were not going through the roof, his estate will be more liquid than his life....
I chose to remember this man as one of the greatest entertainers of his time....and I will ignore those who wish to continually trash someone they never met and lived in circumstances they cannot understand or fathom.

May this man can finally get some peace....