Baby Dannielynn has been named the sole heir to the late Anna Nicole Smith’s estate, a Los Angeles judge ruled in court proceedings held earlier today (March 4).
According to press reports, “In court papers filed in Superior Court Oct. 18, 2007, Howard K. Stern, the executor of Smith’s estate, sought to clarify Smith’s intentions in her July 2001 will, drafted five years before Dannielynn Hope’s September 2006 birth.”
“We and Mr. Stern always believed that Anna Nicole never intended to disinherit her daughter,”’ Stern’s lawyer, Bruce S. Ross, said following the hearing. “I’m pleased to say this chapter in the saga is closed.”Depending on what happens with Smith’s late husband/oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall’s estate, which is still tied up in litigation in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Dannielynn could end up inheriting millions.
Reports add that the “judge also established a trust on the 18-month-old’s behalf, with Stern and Dannielynn’s father, Larry Birkhead, acting as co-trustees.”
