Growing up poor in Placerville, Calif. Courtesy The Kinkade Co. Jack Fischer, Mercury News. Thomas Kinkade, the mass market painter, discusses some of his work from before he became the "Painter of Light. Richard Koci Hernandez, Mercury News.
Courtesy of The Kinkade Co. Jillo is holding a picture of Kinkade that a friend produced that says "The Godfather of Art. Some Thomas Kinkade paintings that customers donated in to help stave off the closure of a gift shop in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood.
Joanne Hoyoung Lee, Mercury News. Out-of-print Thomas Kinkade reproduction paintings at the facility in Morgan Hill. Why the discrepancy in the numbers? She assumes the family underestimates how much Kinkade owned outside the trust.
Handwritten, or holographic, wills are valid in about half the states, though they are most common in situations involving sudden death, and exact requirements vary. In California, for example, a will must be written completely in the person's own handwriting and be signed.
In court papers, Pinto argues that the holographs are valid. If a court agrees, the burden of proof will shift to Kinkade's family to raise the two most common grounds for contesting a will. One is undue influence, which refers to efforts to coerce someone to sign estate-planning documents that favor one beneficiary over others. Another is the argument that the person lacked capacity when signing the document.
The court could toss out the holographs on either of these grounds. Meanwhile, the scrawl is so difficult to read that court documents include a transcription. This is the one dated Nov. Assuming this document is valid, Pinto still isn't home free. The same goes for retirement accounts such as an IRA or k. Instead, the payout at death is distributed to the beneficiary named on the policy.
To make Pinto a beneficiary, Kinkade would have needed to change the policy directly--something he didn't do. There's a stronger argument that the house and the adjacent building with a different address that Kinkade used as a studio, were his to give away, but it's complicated. California is one of nine community property states. If you are domiciled in one of these states, meaning that you call it home, you are subject to the rules of community property.
According to these rules, anything you have going into the marriage or individually receive by gift or inheritance during the marriage is considered separate property. Kinkade, a los Gatos resident, is a national phenomena, selling millions of limited edition prints of his work.
With a talent for art since he was a child, Kinkade left an impoverished home in Placerville for an art scholarship at UC Berkeley, where he experienced a religious awakening that prompted him to drop out and begin to create the bland but soothing images for which he has become rich and famous.
Pinto-Walsh is at the center of a battle over world famous artist Thomas Kinkade's estate following his death earlier this year. Lawyers for the Kinkade estate argued that because Pinto-Walsh signed a confidentiality agreement in February last year, all disputes should be arbitrated by a three-judge panel in a private setting. The couple had been legally separated for more than two years when Kinkade died. The two notes, dated Nov. Pinto-Walsh's lawyers filed court papers Monday stating that she and Kinkade had planned to marry in Fiji as soon as his divorce went through.
0コメント