14 DAY TRIAL // When he died in the summer of 2009, singer Michael Jackson was heavily in debt, but he was far from a poor man. Documents just filed in court reveal how much Michael was worth, while also showing how the Estate claims to have made him an even richer man – post-mortem.
TMZ got a hold of court documents on Michael Jackson’s finances, and they show that the singer was not quite the poor, desperate the media would often make him appear.
Granted, he was in debt, but he still had assets that he could have sold to get out of trouble – if he really was in such a big predicament as rumor said he was, the e-zine points out.
“The Jackson Estate just filed a partial inventory of the tangible property MJ left behind when he died,” TMZ says. It all amounts to $5,780,577.
Michael had an Encino mansion ($4,150,000), Encino condo ($315,000), Desert Auto, LLC (in CA) ($676,317), 1998 Rolls-Royce ($100,000), 1990 Rolls-Royce ($55,000), 1988 Rolls-Royce ($40,000) and bank accounts worth $444,260.
However, the same media outlet points out, this was literally small change from Michael’s real asset: his music catalog, which is now estimated to be worth $1 billion.
Now that he’s gone, Michael is worth much more – and the Estate says it’s because of how it handled everything that this came to happen, TMZ says.
In a separate set of documents, the Estate explains how it took the tens of millions of dollars Michael owned and made him into the most profitable star to have ever lived, albeit post-mortem.
“Executors John Branca and John McClain turned things around in a big way, for two primary reasons. First, they restructured all of his debts and got creditors to significantly lower killer interest rates,” TMZ says.
“Secondly, the executors went full bore to generate revenue – and the brass ring was the movie, ‘This Is It.’ According to the docs, the flick grossed $260,000,000, the most lucrative documentary in history,” the same media outlet points out.
And this wasn’t the only deal the Estate enabled to turn a profit: the album from the film, also called “This is It,” sold 5 million copies, becoming the third biggest seller of last year.
Then, the Estate republished the “Moonwalk” book, came out with a coffee table book, signed merchandising deals for all things Jackson, and renegotiated royalty agreements with the label.
In the same documents, the Estate also says that it took care of Katherine Jackson and Michael’s children after his death – this, in response to Katherine asking for a bigger monthly allowance from the Estate.