Money of late husband still being contested
"By Matthew B. Zeidman
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Today) 3/4/08 – A Los Angeles judge has made it official; Anna Nicole Smith’s 18-month-old daughter, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead, is entitled to her late mother’s estate. However, the future of the $1.6 billion belonging to Smith’s deceased second husband, J. Howard Marshall, is still uncertain.
Tuesday’s legal ruling ensured that Birkhead would receive her mother’s inheritance, worth approximately $710,000 at the time of Smith’s February 2007 death of a drug overdose. Her status as heir had been the subject of legal wrangling, as Smith’s will, written in 2001, named her son, Daniel, as sole heir. Daniel died of a drug overdose in September 2006, three days after his half-sister’s birth.
The judge also ordered a trust established for Birkhead, to be administered by her father, Larry Birkhead, and Smith’s executor and companion, Howard K. Stern.
As for the hundreds of millions of dollars Smith claimed Marshall promised her before his death, her legal team will continue the 13-year fight for the fortune on her daughter’s behalf. Other members of Marshall’s family have been fiercely fighting the claims of Smith and her estate amidst allegations that the former “Playboy” model married the elderly oil magnate solely for the inheritance."
In a ruling on Tuesday, Judge Mitchell Beckloff's ruling clarified that Anna Nicole's daughter was intended to be the beneficiary of her estate as an afterborn child and will be entitled to the entire estate.
Mina N. Sirkin is a Board Certified Specialist attorney in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California. Ms. Sirkin practices in Los Angeles, County Los Angeles. She was the legal expert to PrimeTime News, CBS / K-CAL9 on the death of Anna Nicole Smith. [email protected]. http://www.SirkinLaw.com. Tel: 818-340-4479.
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