Prince News & Update: 'Purple Rain' Singer's Estate Claimants Balloon To More Than 700

The question that remained after the death of Prince was where his properties and wealth will go with the absence of an official will from the singer. Since his death last April, about 700 individuals have claimed to be related to the "Purple Rain" singer.

Newsweek reported that Prince has left behind an estate worth around $800 million including his Paisley Park recording facility, where he was found dead last April 21. His sudden death resulted to the confusion on who will manage all his properties.

Place wealth under Bremer Trust

Tyka Nelson, Prince's full-blood sister, has earlier submit a petition to a Minnesota court asking it to place the singer's wealth to Bremer Trust, the company who has been handling all finances of Prince. The five half-siblings of the American singer-songwriter will also have their fair share of the wealth of Prince under Minnesota law.

The process, however, has become more complicates as claims from other people saying they are the legal heirs of Prince have surfaced. Newsweek said the first one was Carlin Williams, a prisoner who claimed he was the love child of the singer with Marsha Henson in 1976.

There were two other individuals who said they are related to Prince, Reuters said. Brianna Nelson said she is the singer's niece while an 11-year-old girl claims she is the grandniece of the late artist.

Refused DNA testing

NME said the claimants have objected to undergo DNA testing to prove that they are indeed related to Prince. Nelson said that they have given enough proof to show their relationship to the "Purple Rain" singer.

With all these claims, Bremer Trust is faced with a tedious task of verifying who is the rightful heir of Prince. "For those people, 95 per cent of people making a claim, a genetic test is entirely reasonable and we encourage it," the company was quoted by Newsweek as saying.