6-Year Fight Over Prince's Estate Is Resolved

Prince died without a will in 2016, and it has taken six years to figure out how to divvy up his $156 million estate. With no children or spouse, the musician's legal heirs were determined to be his six half siblings. Billboard reports three of them went on to sell most or all of their stakes to music publishing company Primary Wave. The other three—Sharon Nelson, John Nelson, and Norrine Nelson, reports CNN—kept theirs. In February, the judge handling the case established the "basic structure" of the split between the heirs and Primary Wave, per Billboard. Over the following months, Prince's holdings were converted into limited liability companies as a way to minimize the estate's tax liability.

How things shook out on Friday: A Minnesota judge split Prince's estate down the middle, giving equal halves to Prince Legacy LLC (the heirs plus their advisers) and Prince Oat Holdings LLC (Primary Wave). One of the advisers who's part of Prince Legacy LLC, L. Londell McMillan, had this to say to Billboard: "I represented Prince for over 13 years and we led with innovation to reform the music industry—we hope to do the same with his amazing assets and catalog, from his music, film content, exhibits, merchandise, Paisley Park events, branded products, and more. It is a historical and very exciting time. Prince is almost free to rest now." (More Prince stories.)