A King With No Will: What Chadwick Boseman's Estate Can Teach Your Family

Six years after his passing, Chadwick Boseman is in the news again, and not for a new film. In July 2026, his brothers filed a petition asking a Los Angeles court to remove the administrator of his estate, appoint a professional fiduciary and forensic accountant, and require a full accounting of the estate's assets. The man who played a king on screen left this world without a will, and the people who loved him are still sorting it out in a courtroom years later. Essence

If it can happen to Chadwick Boseman, it can happen to anyone.

When someone dies without a will, the state steps in and follows its own rulebook for who inherits and who is put in charge. A family member has to go to court and ask to be appointed, and if more than one person wants that role, or disagrees with how things are being handled, those disagreements play out in public and can stretch on for years. What should be a time of grieving becomes a time of paperwork, court dates, and hard feelings between people who are supposed to lean on each other.

Boseman is not alone. Prince died without a will and left a fortune in limbo for years. Aretha Franklin's family went through their own painful court fight. These are people with every resource in the world, and still their families were left untangling a knot that a simple plan could have prevented. Money does not protect you from this. A plan does.

Here is the part that matters most for the rest of us. You do not need a movie star's bank account for this lesson to apply to your family. The very same court process that is playing out for the Boseman family is the one your loved ones would face. The same delays, the same public filings, the same possibility of relatives ending up on opposite sides. The tools that prevent it are the same too, whether your estate is worth five thousand dollars or five million.

So what actually helps? It usually comes down to two documents working together.

A will lets you name who inherits and who you trust to carry out your wishes, so no one has to guess and no judge has to decide for you. It is also where you name a guardian for your minor children, one of the most important choices a parent will ever make. But a will alone still has to pass through probate, the public court process that tied up the Boseman estate.

That is where a revocable living trust comes in. A trust can keep your family out of probate court altogether, handing your things to the people you love privately and without the long wait. It can also step in to manage your affairs if you become sick or unable to handle them yourself, something a will simply cannot do. For many families, a will and a trust are not an either or choice. They are partners, each doing a job the other cannot. Add the right beneficiary designations on your accounts, keep those choices current, and you have a plan that actually works when your family needs it. None of this requires fame or fortune. It requires a decision to sit down and put it in writing.

There is one more piece of the Boseman story worth sitting with. Estate planning becomes even more urgent when someone receives a serious health diagnosis, because it can open the door to important conversations about passing on what you have built. Those conversations are hard. They are also a gift. Saying out loud what you want, and writing it down, spares your family from guessing during the worst moment of their lives. Essence

That is what planning really is. It is not about death. It is about love. It is about making sure the people you leave behind inherit your care and not your chaos.

Chadwick Boseman gave us a lot on screen. His estate is now giving us one more thing: a reminder to take care of the people we love before we run out of time to do it.

If you have been putting off your plan, let this be your nudge. Reach out, and let's make sure your family never has to wonder.