A legal tug-of-war is under way over how Gerald Levert's assets should be split.

Levert, the velvet-voiced R&B singer who died in November, left behind at least $2 million worth of assets, including two homes, two Mercedes Benz autos, jewelry, clothing, furniture, securities and bank accounts.

The singer's publishing copyrights and music royalties have yet to be appraised, and will make up a sizable part of Levert's estate, according to court records.

The process of divvying up the local music heroe's estate has resulted in a legal battle between Levert's cousin - the executor of the estate - and two women who had children with Levert.

Levert's will named Anthony Gibson, the singer's cousin and business manager, as executor. He launched proceedings in March to administer the estate.

However, the mothers of two of Levert's children - LeMicah Levert, 17 and Camryn Levert, 8 - say Gibson has left them in the dark throughout the process. They say they want to ensure the children receive their due as the singer's legal next-of-kin.

A third child, Carlysia Levert, 17, is also set to inherit from the estate.

The singer's home address has become a point of contention in the legal wrangling.

Gibson had planned to dole out the estate in Cuyahoga County Probate Court, where, he has argued, the singer lived and spent most of his work and free time. The mothers' lawyers say the process, by law, should take place in Geauga County, where Levert had a home in Newbury Township.

When asked by a magistrate Wednesday why the location mattered, the mothers' lawyers said they are concerned over the lack of information they have received on execution of the will.

"We're being met with a lot of resistance," said Steven Cox, who represents Bridget Pursley, LeMicah's mother. Pursley and her son live in New Jersey. The other mother involved in the dispute is Margaret Amber Hawkins, who lives with Camryn in Las Vegas.

Levert suffered from various ailments and died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in the Newbury Township home.

Lever was never married to the three women with whom he had children.

http://blog.cleveland.com...r_lev.html

Sad

Things like this always happens...

funkpill said:

Yeah,it's getting tired,isn't it? Why don't these guys make wills while they're still alive,so that there's no confusion or drama later on?

SoulAlive said:

Most people don't plan financially for their passing, because they don't like to discuss the likelihood of dying. In this instance, Gerald Levert apparently was no different than the typical person on the street.

Najee said:

Yeah,I understand that but I think when you're a recording artist/songwriter/performer,it's important to take care of these things,especially since there are royalties involved.Look at the mess that occured when James Brown died.But yeah,I know that most people don't want to think about their death.

SoulAlive said:

But he DID make a will! That's the thing! He had a will but apparently didn't make proper arrangements for his children or the cousin/executor is trying to screw them over.

I think the lesson is, not only should you have a will, but if you're not married to the mother (or father) of your children, should definitely have certain instructions and plans set up that cannot be intervened by anyone. Too often men leave behind half a dozen or so kids and their mothers who end up fighting for what they feel they're owed or get left out of the picture completely. They may not want to get married but do something legal so that your survivors don't have to deal with such matters that can drag on for years.

JackieBlue said:

Yeah,it's important to take care of this stuff.Otherwise,it'll turn into a big ugly court case that can drag on for years.

What is really upsetting is how the cousin is getting greedy. This really pisses me off.

JackieBlue said:

Come on, he left 3 kids, stop exaggerating.

Plus, wills in these cases will always be challenged by those that feel they should get more. So wills aren't always the end all of documents.

MuthaFunka said:

I did say too often men, not too often Gerald Levert. I've seen it quite a bit.

True, any will can be challenged but unfortunately the exectuor whether family are attorney's do not always have the interest of the beneficiaries in mind.

JackieBlue said:

But your comment was made in reference to GL's situation and it's not the same. And even that comment of "too often" is misleading, it's actually the rare exception.

MuthaFunka said:

Okay, I hear ya. I did exagerrate a bit. I'm just tired of hearing about these sort of things with celebs and regular people. It's bad enough the person has an untimely death but then it seems like the other shoe always drops when there's family, children or common law spouses fighting over assets. For awhile it seemed this wouldn't be the case with Gerald.

JackieBlue said:

I can definitely dig that.

SoulAlive said:

Being a financial advisor, you're preaching to the choir. Unfortunately, cases of improper to no estate planning regularly happen and there are plenty of examples of how no to poor planning devastated estates (Elvis Presley, Sonny Bono, Miami Dolphins founder Joe Robbie, Supreme Court justice Warren Berger).
[Edited 8/4/07 8:21am]

this is non-news.

MuthaFunka said:

Co-sign.