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Mar 4, 2008 4:35 pm US/Eastern
Anna Nicole's Daughter Named Her Heir
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―
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Dannielynn Hope and her father Larry Birkhead appeared in OK! Magazine last year.
Ok! Magazine
Anna Nicole Smith's daughter will inherit her late mother's estate.
A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday not only made 18-month-old Dannielynn
Hope the sole heir, but also set up a trust in the girl's name.
Her father, Larry Birkhead, and Smith's executor, Harry K. Stern, will be co-trustees.
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff granted a petition filed by
Stern, who wanted to clarify Smith's intentions toward her daughter.
Smith drafted a will in 2001 — five years before the child was born —
that left her estate to her then only child, Daniel. However, it said
the assets in Daniel's trust should be shared equally if she had future
children.
Daniel was 20 when he died in 2006, three days after Dannielynn was born.
"We and Mr. Stern always believed that Anna Nicole never intended to
disinherit her daughter," Stern's lawyer, Bruce S. Ross, said after the
hearing. "I'm pleased to say this chapter in the saga is closed."
Dannielynn could inherit millions of dollars if the estate wins an
ongoing court fight over a will by Smith's wealthy second husband, J.
Howard Marshall, that left much of his fortune to the model. His
relatives have been fighting the will for years.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
