Anderson .Paak is a 35 year old, seemingly healthy, Grammy-winning rapper/singer, which is why his recent Instagram post showing off a wordy tattoo regarding his death made some noise.
Placed under a tattoo of Animal, the Muppet, the new tattoo reads, “When I’m gone please don’t release any posthumous albums or songs with my name attached. Those were just demos and never intended to be heard by the public.”
After-death album releases have recently become a hot topic, and several artists (Mac Miller, Pop Smoke, Juice Wrld, Prince, Aaliyah and Selena) have had posthumous albums drop after their passing. There is much conversation as to whether these were the artists wishes (see my Prince blog).
This begs the question, is this posthumous release legally binding in Florida? What would happen if Anderson .Paak was a Florida resident?
In Florida, only a last will may define someone’s final wishes and anything taking the place of a last will (trust for example) must include the testamentary provisions of a last will. So, what are the Florida last will requirements?
Florida Statute 732.502 states that every will must be in writing and executed with the following formalities:
1. The individual must sign the will at the end (or the individual’s name must be subscribed at the end of the will by some other person in the individual’s presence and per the individual’s direction).
2. Two attesting witness signatures, stating that they saw the individual sign and acknowledge the will in the presence of the individual and in the presence of each other.
Without these items, the item fails as a testamentary document and not really worth the ink (or pain). LOL we would need a much larger body part than the forearm to get a tattoo of a testamentary provision that will hold up in Court; maybe a thigh, upper shoulder, tramp-stamp last will…lol
I digress. I hope that on the way to the tattoo parlor, Anderson .Paak visited his attorney and drafted the proper paperwork to make his wishes legally binding. Otherwise, it’s a fun conversation piece and an excellent topic for my blog where we can all learn that last wishes belong in a last will and not as tattoos 🙂
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