When Michael Jackson died in June 2009, he left behind three children and a family trust meant to look after them. Seventeen years later, his daughter Paris says that trust has never been funded, and she is asking a court to change that.
In short
- Paris Jackson has asked a Los Angeles probate court to order a $600 million distribution to the Michael Jackson Family Trust.
- Her filing says the trust has remained unfunded for more than 17 years.
- The estate says it cannot fully fund the trusts until a dispute with the IRS over about $700 million in taxes and penalties is resolved.
What Paris Jackson is asking for
According to TheWrap, Paris Jackson’s petition asks the probate court to order the estate to distribute $600 million to the Michael Jackson Family Trust, which benefits his three children, Prince, Paris and Bigi.
“More than 17 years after his passing, Michael Jackson’s family trust remains unfunded,” the filing states. It also says the executors “have never presented any plan for funding the Michael Jackson Family Trust to the Court.”
The filing argues that Jackson intended his children to receive income from the trust at 21 and the principal at 30, milestones that have passed or are approaching.
What the estate says
The estate pushes back firmly. It says it cannot fully fund the trusts until other matters are settled, chiefly long-running litigation with the IRS over about $700 million in taxes and penalties. The estate says it has secured a ruling that significantly reduces that amount, but the case is not over.
It also called the claim that it is withholding payments a “complete fabrication,” and noted that “none of his children receive a distribution until they are in their 30s.”
Not the first clash
This is not the first time Paris has challenged the executors. In 2025, she questioned more than $600,000 in “premium payments” made to law firms in 2018, as Black Enterprise reported, while a spokesperson for the estate defended the bonuses as tied to the estate’s growth. “These irregular payments raise serious and substantial questions about Executors’ ability to effectively supervise counsel,” her lawyer said at the time. Black Enterprise also reported that access to trust assets for Paris, her brothers and their grandmother Katherine Jackson had been restricted during the IRS review.
Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at 50, as his Wikipedia biography notes. Since then, the question of when his children will receive their share has come back to court again and again.
Like Hart to Hart or the Matilda cast, the Jackson family story is one many readers have followed for decades, through every chapter.
The limit
This is an ongoing legal dispute. The court has not ruled on Paris Jackson’s petition, and the estate’s IRS case is not settled, so the outcome remains uncertain.
The bottom line
Seventeen years after Michael Jackson’s death, the fight over his legacy is no longer about his music. It is about when, and how, his children will finally receive what he left them.
