After the initial mystery surrounding the will that John Singleton’s Mother held -reportedly unbeknownst to his 7 children- the details have just been released and hopefully, they won’t spark even further family tension.
A few days ago, we reported that the beloved director’s mother, Sheila Ward -who also handled his business affairs, including his will- was expecting to file his will soon. At that time, it was unknown who exactly was included within it. Given that two of John’s kids previously accused their Grandmother of being spiteful toward John and his children, it was suspected Sheila would present a will that benefits her instead of her grandbabies.
Fast forward to now, and Mama Sheila has in fact filed the will in a California court. Turns out, the expectations took an unexpected turn.
Who’s The Beneficiary?
According to TMZ, there’s only one beneficiary named in John Singleton’s will…but it ain’t his Moms. It is his 26 year old daughter, Justice Singleton (pictured below), who will inherit his estate, which is reportedly valued at $3.8 million. However there are a few possible catches to this. Read on…
There’s Still Hope For The Other Singleton Kids…Here’s The Catch…
For starters, John wrote his will in 1993, when Justice was his only child. The other 6 kids were born in the years after:
Under California law, the 6 children born after the will was signed may have rights, because they were not specifically excluded from the will. If the 6 kids didn’t get anything from John, under California law, they could make a strong case the $3.8 million should be divided into 7 equal parts … in other words, each child would get 1/7th. -via TMZ
John’s actual net worth is said to be $35 million, so the remaining fortune still has to go to someone, but who?
It’s highly likely that John has a trust which includes several other assets that are not listed in his will. So, if the full value of his estate is in fact $35 million, it’s likely that his other 6 children will be well taken care of from that trust.
On the flip side, if the remaining 6 kids are included in a trust, they technically lose any rights to whatever assets are included in his will…those assets will remain in Justice’s name.
Thankfully, Justice Singletary is close to her siblings as far as we can tell, so it’s possible that they won’t have any beef with her over the will, because she had nothing to do with it.
Once it’s all said and done, hopefully ALL of Singleton’s kids get an equal split of his estate.
