Many questions are still left unanswered following the tragic death of Bobbi Kristina Brown, who passed away on Sunday after spending nearly seven months in a coma.
E! News spoke with attorney Mina Sirkin on Monday at her office in Woodland Hills, Calif. to find out what will happen to Bobbi Kristina’s mother Whitney Houston’s estate now that the 22-year-old will no longer be the primary inheritor.
“She [Whitney Houston] left 10 percent of her estate to her daughter at the age of 21 but her daughter didn’t reach the age of 30 when she would have received all of it,” Sirkin tells E! News. “So 90 percent of the estate of Whitney Houston will now pass to her parents, her siblings, and potentially even to her ex-husband, Bobby Brown.”
The only child of Bobby Brown and the late Whitney Houston was found unconscious in a bathtub at her Rosewell, GA home on the morning of Jan. 31 and had been in a comatose state ever since. In March, she was moved to a long-term care facility in the Atlanta area, and in June, she was transferred to hospice after her condition “continued to deteriorate,” Pat Houston, Whitney’s sister, said.
“In most states, a divorced spouse does not inherit from the will of a person,” Sirkin continued. “So it’s going to be subject to a question as to where that portion would go to because the will was created before the divorce of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.
“This could get very messy if Bobbi Kristina was married to Nick Gordon,” she said (Bobby Brown previously stated that his daughter was not married to Gordon). “Under state law, in most states, a spouse can inherit at least part of the estate of their spouse if there’s no will.”
Mirkin explained that the legal process is even more complicated since there are now two different parts of Whitney’s estate—the 10 percent that Bobbi Kristina already inherited and the 90 percent she was set to receive at the age of 30.
“There’s two different parts. The 10 percent would have already passed to Bobbi Kristina and Bobbi Kristina’s estate would govern where that money ends up,” Mirkin said. “The 90 percent that wasn’t distributed to Bobbi Kristina yet, that goes to her family members that are named in the will of Whitney Houston, which includes also her ex husband.”
“Whitney left all of her jewelry to her mother and she left the balance of her personal effects to her parents, her siblings and Bobby Brown,” she continued.
As for Bobbi Kristina’s personal effects, such as her apartment? “If she died without a will, then it would pass to her father, naturally,” Mirkin said. “Unless she’s married, in which case her husband would also have a share of that.”