IKE TURNER'S PROBATE AS ERRATIC AS HIS LIFE

IKE TURNER'S PROBATE AS ERRATIC AS HIS LIFE

Although clean for several years, two years prior to his death, 50’s rock & roller, Ike Turner, returned to using illicit drugs again, the result of which was his death of an overdose of cocaine in December, 2007. On September 17th, almost two years following his death, his probate trial finally began. It appears that the trial is going to be as erratic and unpredictable as his life.

Turner was married several times, (reportedly somewhere between 5 and 13 times), and had 6 adult children. Although inducted in 1991 in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it is uncertain as to whether Ike left a sizeable estate. To be sure, he left a home in San Marcos and there are some intellectual property rights but their values have yet to be ascertained.

The vagueness in values, however, has not daunted the claimants. Vista Superior Court Judge Richard Cline will have to sort through an array of assertions to reach his decision.

Ike’s final ex-wife, Audrey Madison Turner, claims that Ike left a handwritten will which left everything to her. Although divorced from each other, Madison Turner claims that she and Ike had resumed living together and that one evening in October, 2007, Ike decided to write a will and designate her as sole beneficiary because she was the only one who took care of him and he wanted her to be happy. Madison Turner is a convicted felon, who confessed to real estate fraud, so her credibility is automatically questionable.

Ike’s children have introduced another handwritten will written one month later that revokes the will leaving everything to Madison Turner.

Added to this is yet another will, handwritten in 2001, which has been offered by Ike’s friend and former attorney, James Clayton. The will directs that all distribution decisions are to be made by Clayton and one of Ike’s adult children. However, if either of the later wills are deemed valid, they would trump this will. Added to that is Madison Turner’s testimony, which was that Ike told Madison Turner that Clayton was an “estate chaser” and was not to be trusted.

Apparently the relations among the litigants are very strained inasmuch as one of the attorneys for them requested extra security for the trial because the attorney expected the trial to be so heated.

Ike Turner, in death, will be yet another celebrity poster boy for the perils of poor estate planning. Here is a picture of someone who knew, or at least felt, death was near, (the last two wills were done one and two months ahead of his death), but didn’t know or care enough to have an estate plan done right. One would think that with a plethora of wives and children, that Ike would have been inspired to do a proper estate plan so that the heirs wouldn’t get caught in the emotional and financial tangles of probate litigation. But, in the words of his most famous wife: “What’s Love Got To Do With It”?