Michael Jackson's will

Settling the King of Pop's estate might be complicated despite a 7-year-old document detailing his last wishes

Michael Jackson's will has surfaced, said Harriet Ryan in the Los Angeles Times, but that won't necessarily make it easy to settle his estate. An entertainment attorney who hasn't worked for the late King of Pop for years produced a 7-year-old will that reportedly puts Jackson's assets into a family trust, effectively splitting them "among his mother, children and one or more charities." But Jackson's mother, Katherine, has asked for control of his affairs, and the Jackson family is evaluating the validity of the will.

The documents have been filed in a Los Angeles court, said Anthony McCartney in the Associated Press, and it cuts out his ex-wife Debbie Rowe entirely. Jackson's net worth when the will was written was estimated at $500 million, and every penny goes into the private family trust.

One interesting thing, said Lorenzo Benet in People, is that Michael Jackson's will names his mother Katherine, 79, as guardian of his children—Prince, 12, Paris, 11, and Blanket, 7. And it doesn't specifically exclude his father, Joe Jackson, as a possible beneficiary, as had been rumored.