What if there is a trust?
The most likely scenario, says tax lawyer Michael Kosnitzky, of Boies, Schiller & Flexner in New York and Miami, is that there is a will and that it sets up a trust or a series of trusts into which all of Prince's assets at the time of his death will flow.
Unlike wills and probate court proceedings, such trusts can be kept confidential from the public. If Prince chose this route, it's possible we may never know the true extent of his estate or his plans for it after his death.
"Usually, wealthy, organized people or sophisticated celebrities use trusts that are set up while they're alive, to determine (what happens after death) in a confidential way, they're not public documents," says Koznitsky. "They don't want the world to know who their beneficiaries (the heirs) are, or special dispositions, etc."
Such trusts are managed by an executor (some states call them "personal representatives"), and it's usually not the heirs.
http://www.thv11.com/news/nation-now/princes-estate-6-key-questions-answered/153185762