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Did Monkee Mike Nesmith Have More Than One Will?

May 19, 2022
David Parker, Esq.
What was in Ray Liotta 's Will
David Parker, White Plains and New City NY Estate Planning Attorney
David Parker, Esq.
David Parker is an attorney who specializes in Estate Planning and Elder Law and has been practicing law for 30 years. Be it Wills, Trusts, Powers of Attorney, Health Care Proxies, or Medicaid Planning, David provides comprehensive and caring counsel for seniors and their families. A large portion of David’s practice is asset protection strategies so that families do not lose their hard earned savings to nursing home care costs. He also handles probate administration for the settlement of estates.
There was more than one will written by musician and music video pioneer Michael Nesmith, who came to fame in the 1960s as one of The Monkees rock group and died at his Carmel Valley home on Dec. 10, 2021.

Theirs is evidence that musician Mike Nesmith of the Monkees had several wills. A handwritten will from 2014 was submitted to Monterey County Superior Court in California in December. There's evidence of at least one other handwritten will from an earlier time. Nesmith's four adult children are now also saying that there exists a true will created in 1994.

One problem, says Monterey County Weekly’s recent article entitled “Michael Nesmith's four children claim there's another will and contest the estate's worth.” They don't have a copy of the 1994 will yet, according to court documents filed on March 17.

"Objectors believe that the document is a codicil to the decedent's will, which he executed in 1994," the objection states. (A codicil is a legal term for an addition or amendment to, or a revocation of, a previous will.) They've sent subpoenas to the estate planning attorneys who drafted the 1994 will, requesting the attorneys to produce it.

The children assert that since Nesmith's one-page, handwritten will, dated July 8, 2014, doesn't state that the new will revokes all previous wills, it's not the true will, only an amendment. That will leave everything Nesmith owns to the Gihon Foundation, which was created in 1977 by his mother Bette Graham, the inventor of Liquid Paper. Nesmith was president of the foundation, and his children are members of the board.

Nesmith’s estate was estimated to be roughly $3.6 million by Mike Nesmith's business manager and accountant Cynthia Davis, who filed the court papers after his death requesting to be named by the court as the estate's special administrator.

However, the Monkee’s children say that the estate is actually valued at $1.95 million. They believe that Davis incorrectly included in her estimation assets that are part of a trust, also executed in 1994. That trust leaves all furniture, furnishings, personal effects, vehicles and "all other tangible or intangible personal property" to Nesmith's ex-wife, Victoria Kennedy, to whom he was married at the time of the 1994 will and trust.

Although the children said they don't have the 1994 will yet, they did submit as evidence a copy of a one-page document stating that Kennedy will receive his belongings. It's signed by Mike Nesmith as trustor of the "1994 Presidential Trust," as well as Kennedy, who’s named as trustee.

A court is expected to resolve the issues at a hearing this spring.

Reference: Monterey County Weekly  (March 23, 2022) “Michael Nesmith's four children claim there's another will and contest the estate's worth”

 

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