Probate

They are rarely seen in public, and when they are, it is usually with their faces masked or veiled. It is not clear who their biological father is, but they are Michael Jackson’s legal children. The question facing Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11; and Prince Michael II (more commonly known as Blanket), 7, now is: Who will raise them to adulthood?

 “Michael Jackson has been the only parent these children have known, and now he’s gone,” Galina Espinoza, senior editor of People magazine, told TODAY’s Natalie Morales Friday in New York.

This is a prime example of why proper planning is important. If you do not make the decisions in advance about who is to benefit from what you leave behind and who will be in charge of following your instructions, then the state will decide for you. This story, reported at MySanAntonio, illustrates the disastrous results of the state's decisions in one such case.