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Smith's will creates more legal confusion

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 18, 2007

FORT LAUDERDALE - During the first three days of a custody dispute over Anna Nicole Smith's body, attorneys frequently referred to the former pinup's will.

But the 2001 document, which was released Friday, leaves more questions than it answers about who will inherit Smith's potentially huge estate.

The 19-page will did not say how much Smith was worth, so it is still unclear how much money those battling over her remains and her infant daughter could get. And while her body underwent embalming Saturday, the will didn't mention where Smith wanted to be buried.

It named Smith's lawyer and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, as her executor, stipulating that he hold her estate in trust for son Daniel Smith. But her son died last September at age 20 of what is believed to be drug-related causes, days after the birth of the Smith's daughter, Dannielynn.

And the will explicitly leaves out anything for anyone other than Daniel Smith.

"I have intentionally omitted to provide for my spouse and other heirs, including future spouses and children and other descendants now living and those hereafter born or adopted," Smith said in the will, which was signed under her legal name, Vickie Lynn Marshall.

Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin ordered the release of the will in the latest round in the tangled legal dispute that erupted after Smith died at a Florida hotel Feb. 8 at age 39. The cause of death is under investigation.

Two embalmers started their work Saturday at the Broward County medical examiner's office - after being searched for objects like cameras and signing a confidentiality agreement that stated they would not talk about, write about, photograph or draw the body, said the medical examiner, Dr. Joshua Perper.

[Last modified February 18, 2007, 00:51:06]