Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Newark native Whitney Houston, was buried next to her mother at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield on Monday.
The discord between relatives of her father, R&B singer Bobby Brown, and the Houston family was evident, even as Bobbi Kristina lay in a Georgia hospice care facility. It appeared not even death could bring the two sides together.
At the center of the dispute was Whitney Houston's multimillion-dollar estate.
Leolah Brown, Bobbi Kristina's paternal aunt, has on numerous occasions, accused Pat Houston of seeking to gain financially from Bobbi Kristina's death. Pat Houston is the wife of Whitney Houston's brother Gary and the executor of the late music legend's estate.
In April, Bobby Brown and Pat Houston were legally appointed co-guardians of Bobbi Kristina by a Georgia family court, and a conservator was appointed to look after her assets. But the fate of Whitney Houston's fortune, all of which Bobbi Kristina inherited, was decided long before then.
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Houston's will was drafted about 20 years ago and named Bobbi Kristina as the sole heir to her estate. The will stipulated that Bobbi Kristina would receive the money in a series of payments over nine years -- 10 percent at age 21 (about $2 million), a 30 percent distribution at 25 and the remainder at age 30.
The will stipulates that "if Bobbi Kristina were to die unmarried, without children of her own and had left no will and testament of her own, the estate would be divided among Whitney's living relatives." Those relatives are listed as Houston's mother, Emily "Cissy" Houston, and her brothers Michael and Gary. Houston's father, John, who died in 2003, was also listed, as was Bobby Brown. But Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown's 2007 divorce nullified his claim to her estate.
Still, according to the law in Georgia, which is where Bobbi Kristina lived, Bobby Brown could have some claim to his daughter's assets.
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"To the extent that Bobbi has assets in her own name -- whether received from her mother's trust or otherwise -- her father is likely the sole heir under the laws of intestacy of Georgia, assuming she did not do a will, which most people her age would not have done," said Andrew Cevasco, a partner in the estate and trust practice at Archer and Greiner in Hackensack.
(Cevasco did not handle the Houston estate.)
Bobbi Kristina's longtime beau, Nick Gordon, does not stand to gain any of the inheritance.
Whitney Houston took Gordon in as a teen and raised him as her own, but never legally adopted him. Despite the couple's social media pronouncements of their marriage, earlier this year, Bobby Brown denied his daughter ever married Gordon, who found her unconscious on Jan. 31 in a home the two shared.
"Georgia law indicates that the husband would receive 100 percent if there are no children," Cevasco said. "But there is some speculation that Nick caused her death. If that can be proven, then it is likely, even if he can prove they were married, that he would be excluded from any inheritance."
Authorities are still investigating what led to the death of the daughter of Houston and Bobby Brown.
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