What Happens When You Die Without a Will: The Prince Estate and What It Means for British Expats

In April 2016, one of the most commercially successful musicians in history died unexpectedly at his home in Minnesota. Prince had 12 properties, a vault of unreleased recordings, valuable music rights, an estimated $300 million estate – and he died without a will.

Not a draft. Not a trust. Not even an informal letter of wishes. Nothing.

A Minnesota court judge subsequently described the situation as “personal and corporate mayhem.” Years of litigation, tens of millions in legal fees, and a tax bill that structured planning could have substantially reduced – all of it entirely avoidable.

For British expatriates managing assets across Hong Kong, Singapore, the UAE, and the UK, the Prince estate is not a celebrity curiosity. It is a precise illustration of what happens when wealth and planning are completely disconnected.

Why Prince Died Without a Will

Prince was known for being an unusually astute businessman. He negotiated his own contracts, regained control of his master recordings, and ran his Paisley Park estate as a self-contained creative and commercial operation.

He was also deeply private. He rarely used lawyers for personal matters, distrusting outsiders with financial information. He was a practising Jehovah’s Witness, a faith that some speculate made him reluctant to contemplate death formally. And like many high earners, he may simply have assumed there was always more time.

There is a pattern here that is not unique to celebrities. Many high-net-worth individuals delay estate planning for the same reasons: privacy concerns, reluctance to confront mortality, and the assumption that complexity can be sorted later. For expatriates, living across jurisdictions adds another layer – it is genuinely difficult to know where to start, which jurisdiction governs which assets, and who to trust with the work.

What Happened to Prince’s Estate When He Died Without a Will

When Prince died intestate – without a will – his estate passed to the courts under Minnesota’s intestacy laws. Those laws dictate a fixed hierarchy of beneficiaries: spouse first, then children, then siblings. Prince had no surviving spouse or children. His estate was eventually divided among his six siblings and half-siblings – regardless of whether that reflected anything he would have wanted.

The process took years and cost millions. Comerica Bank and Trust, appointed as administrator, spent years valuing assets including properties, vehicles, an estimated $100 million in future music royalties, unreleased recordings, and the Paisley Park compound. Multiple individuals came forward claiming to be heirs. Each claim required investigation.

The estate also faced a substantial federal estate tax bill. With no planning in place – no charitable bequests, no trust structures, no gifting strategies – the tax exposure was maximised rather than managed. Estimates suggest the IRS received over $100 million from the estate.

Prince’s wealth funded the government’s coffers far more generously than it needed to, and funded none of the causes he cared about in life, because there were no instructions to do so.

Dying Without a Will as a British Expat: The Complications Multiply

If the Prince estate illustrates the cost of dying intestate in a single jurisdiction, the picture for a British expatriate with cross-border assets is considerably more complex.

When a British national dies without a will while living abroad, multiple legal systems may claim a role in administering the estate simultaneously. UK inheritance tax applies based on domicile – not where you live, but where your legal home is considered to be. Under rules revised in April 2025, many long-term expatriates who assumed they had broken their UK domicile connection may find that assumption challenged by HMRC.

At the same time, the country of residence will apply its own succession laws to local assets. Hong Kong follows English common law broadly, but probate must still be granted locally. Singapore has its own Intestate Succession Act. The UAE applies a combination of civil law and Sharia succession principles, with significant implications for how property and financial assets are treated.

For an expatriate with a UK property, a Hong Kong bank account, a Singapore investment portfolio, and pension assets in the UK, dying without a will does not produce one set of proceedings. It produces several, running concurrently, governed by different laws, in different languages, potentially in conflict with one another.

The Trust Advantage: What Prince Did Not Have

A living trust – sometimes called a family trust – is a legal arrangement in which assets are transferred into a trust during the owner’s lifetime, managed by a named trustee, and distributed to named beneficiaries according to specific instructions.

The key practical difference between a trust and a will is probate. Assets held in a will must pass through probate court before they can be distributed. Probate takes time – often months, sometimes years – and costs money. It is also a public process.

Assets held in a trust bypass probate entirely. They pass directly and immediately to the named beneficiaries. There is no court involvement, no public disclosure, and no delay. For a family that needs access to funds quickly – to cover living expenses, school fees, or immediate costs – this distinction is not theoretical.

Prince’s estate had none of this. Every asset had to be individually identified, valued, and administered through the courts. The process that took years and cost millions could, with proper planning, have been resolved in weeks.

What You Should Have in Place So You Do Not Die Without a Will

A Valid, Executed Will

A will does not need to be complex to be effective. It needs to be valid – signed, witnessed, and executed according to the laws of the jurisdiction it is intended to operate in. For British expatriates, this typically means a UK will covering UK assets and, where assets are held abroad, additional wills tailored to those jurisdictions.

Beneficiary Nominations on Pensions and Insurance

Pensions, life insurance policies, and certain investment accounts pass outside a will entirely – directly to a named beneficiary upon submission of a death certificate. If you have not nominated a beneficiary, or your nominations are out of date, those assets may not go where you intend regardless of what your will says.

A Trust Structure Where Appropriate

Not every estate requires a trust. But for expatriates with complex family circumstances, assets in multiple jurisdictions, or a need to provide for dependants immediately following death, a trust structure offers advantages that a will alone cannot replicate.

An Understanding of Your IHT Position

If you are a British national living abroad and your estate has not been reviewed since the April 2025 changes to UK domicile rules, you may be carrying more IHT exposure than you realise.

The Cost of Doing Nothing

Prince did not plan to leave his estate in legal limbo. He did not intend for his siblings to receive assets he may have wished to direct elsewhere. He did not set out to hand over $100 million to the federal government rather than to causes he supported in life.

He simply did not plan. And the absence of a plan became the plan – administered by a court, governed by laws he never consulted, at a cost his estate bore in full.

The same outcome, scaled to your circumstances, is available to anyone who makes the same choice. The difference between Prince’s situation and yours is not the amount at stake. It is that you still have time to do something about it.

Annette Houlihan is the founder of Carey Suen, a specialist estate planning and wealth advisory firm with nearly 40 years of experience serving British expatriates across Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UAE. To review your arrangements or understand your IHT position, book a consultation at careysuen.com.