🎤 Paris Jackson challenges $625,000 in Jackson estate fees

The estate called the "premium payments" appropriate. On May 13, 2026 a judge ordered the money returned. 🗣️

By , money desk · Desk editor Laima Ērkšķe-Kreicberga · · 3 min read

Paris JacksonFILEDPhoto: LucaFazPhoto · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: LucaFazPhoto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Desaturated and cropped by MrScandal.

The paperwork from 2002 to 2009

Michael Jackson's last will, a 2002 document, named his longtime attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain as its executors - the two men Branca later recalled were "named in Michael's will." Jackson died in 2009, and a copy of the 2002 will was filed with the court in Los Angeles that year. Branca and McClain have run the estate as co-executors ever since, with the will directing that all of the estate's assets be distributed to a trust.

What we know

  • Paris Jackson, a beneficiary of the estate, objected in a June 24, 2025 filing to the executors' request for approval of legal fees, citing "irregular payments" and "premium payments" for unrecorded attorney time.
  • A U.S. Tax Court ruled in 2021 that the estate's total value was $111.5 million, after the estate argued $5.1 million and the IRS put it above $500 million.
  • The estate earned a Forbes-record $825 million in 2016, largely from the $750 million sale of its Sony/ATV stake to Sony that September.
  • John Branca and John McClain served as the estate's co-executors from 2009; a judge ruled on May 13, 2026 that $625,000 they paid to law firms must be returned to the estate, and McClain died on May 26, 2026.

What the estate is worth, on the record

01

A $236.6 million starting point

Documents obtained by the Associated Press, dated 2007, showed Jackson with $567.6 million in assets - including Neverland and the rights to Beatles songs - against $331 million in debts, for a net worth of $236.6 million.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)
02

The Sony/ATV payout

In September 2016 Sony completed its purchase of the estate's 50% stake in Sony/ATV Music Publishing for $750 million, giving Sony sole ownership of the publisher - a company Billboard estimated was worth $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion at the time.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)
03

Forbes' biggest entertainer year

The estate's 2016 earnings hit $825 million - the largest annual gain Forbes had recorded for an entertainer, living or dead, almost all of it from the Sony/ATV sale. Two years later Sony paid the estate $287.5 million for its 9.84% stake in EMI Music Publishing, and the estate's 2018 earnings came in at $400 million.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)
04

The IRS fight, decided by a tax court

The estate told the U.S. Tax Court its total value was $5.1 million; the IRS first put it above $500 million, then lowered the figure to $481.9 million. Much of the dispute turned on Jackson's name and likeness, which the IRS's outside expert valued at $61 million. In 2021, Judge Mark Holmes set the name and likeness at $4 million and the estate's total combined value at $111.5 million.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)

Paris Jackson's objection

In a filing dated June 24, 2025, Michael's daughter Paris - one of the estate's beneficiaries - formally objected to the executors' request for court approval of legal fees tied to work done in 2018. Court documents reported by The Independent and People show she objected to $625,000 in payments to three law firms for what her lawyer called "uncaptured time," and to the practice of granting "premium payments" for unrecorded attorney time without explaining why the work was never billed.

"irregular payments ... premium payments for unrecorded attorney time"

Paris Jackson's 2025 court filing, as reported by The Independent

One of the estate's own beneficiaries asking its executors to produce the invoices - that is the filing in a line.

What happened next

The estate pushed back. Its attorney, Jonathan Steinsapir, told People the payments were "appropriate" and "fully consistent with payments made in the decade prior, all of which have been approved by the Probate Court," noting the executors' judgment had "earned this Estate over $3 billion." Branca and McClain denied Paris's broader accusation that they had abused their role to pad their own pockets. Then the math moved against them: a judge ruled on May 13, 2026 that the $625,000 the executors had paid to three outside law firms must be returned to the estate. Weeks later, on May 26, 2026, McClain died, leaving Branca as the surviving co-executor of a partnership that has run the estate since 2009.

The Paris Jackson file

Last entry Jul 1, 2025
  1. Filed

    Paris Jackson objects to the Michael Jackson estate's legal fees This story

On file: The Paris Jackson file

The Ledger

On the record

  • Paris Jackson, a beneficiary of the estate, objected in a June 2025 filing to $625,000 in legal-fee payments the executors made to three law firms for unrecorded time.
  • A U.S. Tax Court ruled in 2021 that the estate's total value was $111.5 million, after the estate argued $5.1 million and the IRS put it above $500 million.
  • A judge ruled on May 13, 2026 that the $625,000 must be returned to the estate; co-executor John McClain died on May 26, 2026.
  • The estate earned a Forbes-record $825 million in 2016, largely from the $750 million Sony/ATV sale.

Still rumour

  • The current contents or value of the trust that holds the estate's assets.
  • The final adjusted estate-tax bill, which the Tax Court left unset.

That's the record. The rest is rumour. - MissFortune

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