Farm Horizons
•
June 6, 2016
•
Page 10
Lessons learned from Prince
After reading the headline, most of
First, it goes to your spouse. No spouse?
you are probably scratching your heads
Myron Oftedahl Then, to your children; no living chiland wondering if Myron has really gone
dren, then to your grandchildren. If there
Farm Business
Management Instructor,
over the edge, but bear with me.
is no one in that level, then it goes to your
South Central College
I think that, by now, all of you are
parents. If no surviving parents, then to
aware that Prince died without a will.
your siblings, then nieces and nephews,
Personally, if you have the same finanand then grand-nieces and grand-nephcial and legal advisors that Prince did, I
ews. If there are still no surviving heirs,
would stop reading right now and fire them. Yup, just
then it moves to grandparents, then aunts and uncles,
like Donald does on the TV show, “You’re fired!”
then first cousins once and twice removed. If, after movOK, now you can start reading again. For someone
ing through that whole list there are no surviving heirs,
with as large of an estate like that to die without a will is
it all goes to the State of Minnesota.
inexcusable. Maybe he did it on purpose; we may never
So, you can see the kind of mess Prince left for his
know. You could argue that he was a private person.
heirs, and it will probably keep a bunch of attorneys and
That may be true prior to death, but especially because
the court system happy for quite a while.
he died intestate, his estate will become a very public
Is that what you want for your estate and farming opone.
eration?
If you are not aware of the estate process when you
Let’s look more closely at what a will does and doesn’t
die without a will, it goes like this. The State of Mindo, and the estate process.
nesota has a plan for you. If there is no will, the estate
A will is a legal document that allows you to transproperty will be distributed according to the state’s infer your property upon death. You do not legally need
testate succession laws.
a will, but it allows you to control how your estate will
So, here is how your property will be distributed.
be distributed. You must be at least 18 years old and of
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