The final valuation of Prince's estate, which has been in legal turmoil since the music icon died in 2016 without leaving a will behind, has been determined.
The Internal Revenue Service, the estate’s administrator Comerica Bank & Trust, and Prince’s heirs accepted a $156.4 million valuation of the late singer’s estate, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The sum is well over the $82.3 million appraisal by Comerica Bank & Trust, and slightly under the $163.2 million that the IRS valued the estate in 2020.
Now that the final valuation has been accepted, the parties could next month begin the process of distributing Prince's estate, with it being evenly divided among the New York music company Primary Wave and three of Prince’s heirs or their families.
"It has been a long six years," L. Londell McMillan, an attorney for three of Prince’s siblings, told The Associated Press Friday at Carver County District Court.
Comerica, in a court filing Friday, said that while the IRS settlement was "fair and reasonable," it believes it would have "prevailed" in the tax court case. Comerica further stated it had told Prince's heirs that they should continue pressing the IRS, or go to trial, if lowering estate taxes was their "primary interest."
"Instead, the members of the heir group have uniformly communicated to (Comerica) their strong desire that the estate settle with the taxing authorities," the filing said.
Prince died in April 2016 at age 57 from a fentanyl overdose. The Sun reported that he lay dead for several hours in an elevator at his Paisley Park home before he was found by his drummer Kirk Johnson and his personal assistant Meron Berkure.
According to reports, his private jet was forced to make an emergency landing in Illinois shortly after a performance in Atlanta, and he was briefly hospitalized days before his death.
The "Purple Rain" singer and cultural icon was born Prince Rogers Nelson and made headlines in 1993 when he changed his name to a symbol.
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