What Happens to Matthew Perry’s Estate, Including His Friends Residuals? Legal Experts Explain (Exclusive)

Following the heartbreaking death of Matthew Perry at the age of 54 on October 28, loved ones Friends the actor leaves behind a considerable fortune.

Perry’s estate includes all of his assets: everything he owned, such as real estate or property, and everything he was entitled to receive, including the remains of Friends.

Copyrights, trademarks, his name and likeness, and royalties (like those from his 2022 memoir Friends, lovers and the big scary thingfor example) are also included, as are all his investments, cash and securities.

According to California estate attorneys David Esquibias, Laura Zwicker and Jonathan Forster, there are several different ways Perry’s estate could be handled.

Below, three experts present the possible options under the law to PEOPLE.

What happens to Perry’s remains?

Perry will continue to receive remaining payments from Friends even after his death, but now the question is who will succeed them.

“Guild and unions allow you to name a user. It’s not the most common route, but it’s certainly a route,” says Forster. “So he could have listed certain beneficiaries of his leftovers with the union industry and the actors’ guild, different guilds, that’s one option.”

Equibias agrees and explains that beneficiary designation goes beyond just past due payments.

“In California, you can also designate a beneficiary for real estate, stock accounts, bonds, accounts, life insurance, IRAs, 401(k)s, CDs,” he says. “So if you have designated beneficiaries, it will go to whoever you designated.”

But, if Perry chose not to name a specific beneficiary or beneficiaries for his residuals, then it’s more likely that he indicated where his residual earnings would go because “everything he owned,” Zwicker says, “was going to be given to somebody.”

From left: Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Matt Le Blanc as Joey Tribbiani and Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay in ‘Friends,’ circa 1995.

NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Perry may have had confidence

“The more likely way is that he gave his trust. The trust is not a public record and we would not disclose who the end beneficiaries are, but the trust would determine who would be entitled to all of his assets, which would include his remains,” Forster says. “He may have specifically carved out the rest to go to one person or category of people. Or maybe he just said that all my property was divided into shares for these people, and they would just share it.”

An additional advantage of trusts is that they are private, meaning that transactions between the deceased and the person inheriting are not available to the public as they would be in probate court (where Perry’s estate will be litigated if he did not plan his death in any way , shape or form).

“Whenever someone does a trust in the state of California, we fund our trust during their lifetime, which means that the clients would transfer their assets to the trust so that the assets are distributed upon their death according to the terms of the trust,” Forster says.

In other words, Perry’s trust (or trusts) would explicitly determine “who gets what,” Esquibias says.

“Assuming that Perry did such a thing, then his trustee, which will read like a will, says who receives and at what time. So when the bills are paid, the final expenses, the funeral expenses, the final illness expenses, when it’s all paid for, then [what you’re left with] is the net amount for distribution.”

Matthew Perry.

Jeff Lipsky/CPi Syndication

Matthew Perry once said he would give up fame and fortune to avoid dealing with addiction: ‘I would change everything’

What if Perry had a will?

Both wills and trusts “provide guidance on who controls your assets and then who will benefit from your assets when you die,” Zwicker says.

The big difference between the two is that if you have a will, the court will be involved and “there will be a court-supervised probate process where your will will be filed with the court and become a matter of public record. And then an inventory of all your assets will be made that will be filed in court, and it will also become public record,” she says. “So it’s clear that anyone who’s thinking doesn’t transfer their assets by will because everything becomes public.”

Forster agrees with Zwicker’s assessment, adding that a will is “probably the least likely option” because of the publicity.

However, wills and trusts can work together for a simpler and more private process.

“Most well-advised people would have a will and a trust because the trust only works on the assets you put in the trust,” Zwicker says. “So you can think of trust as a box with rules. You put your stuff in the box and the rules rule. If you’ve left something out of the box, we need our will.”

The most common type of will in a case like Perry’s would be a “spill-over will,” which works in conjunction with a trust, Forster explains.

“So as part of a traditional California estate plan, you would create a trust, you would try to fund your trust with all of your assets during your lifetime, and then you would also make a will to deal with any residual assets,” says Forster. “Bequeathing is like pouring assets, and the will would simply say, ‘I leave all my assets to the foundation.’ So, if there is property that for whatever reason did not end up in the trust, the will would pour that property into the trust.”

Matthew Perry cast as Chandler Bing in June 1994.

Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

The Matthew Perry Foundation for Struggling Addicts was established in his honor after his death

Without a will or trust, Perry’s estate will be litigated in probate court

“If he has no estate plan, if he never made a will, never made a trust, never did anything, then it would go to the probate court to determine who is entitled to the property and the court would make a decision. .. and everything would be public, and it would follow California probate law for people who die without an estate plan,” says Forster.

One might ask, what is the law on wills?

According to Zwicker, it’s a simple rule that says “if you don’t have a trust and you don’t have a will, here are the people who have the right to share your property when you die.”

And since everything that happens in probate court is public, “it’s very unusual [probate court] to do it on purpose. You’re more likely to have celebrities who don’t think about planning their death. They think they’re going to live a long, happy and healthy life, and they just never get around to realizing their real estate plan,” Forster says of how this scenario could play out.

The publicity of probate courts might turn some off, but Esquibias makes an interesting point about how celebrities think about their estate planning.

“Maybe people who are very rich want that kind of transparency. They want people to see what’s going on so that no one is ripping them off, that no one is trying to do anything or make deals under the table. Sometimes people really want probate and say it’s worth the cost, worth the cost. And sometimes a calculated decision is made in advance: I will not trust,” he says.

Matthew Perry.

Noam Galai/Getty

Matthew Perry’s parents: All about his dad John, mum Suzanne and step-dad Keith Morrison

It is possible that Perry’s estate will pass to his parents

People often set up trusts and/or designate their spouses or children as beneficiaries.

Perry was unmarried and had no children, so in his case the people who would receive his estate are likely to be his two parents, John Bennett Perry and Suzanne Morrison, Forster says.

John and Suzanne welcomed Matthew in 1969, although the two divorced less than a year later. Both John and Suzanne remarried and had more children with their partners: Suzanne married Date lineKeith Morrison in 1981, while John married his wife Debbie the same year.

“You can leave your property however you want. You could say that I wanted my trust to be divided into seven parties. One for each parent and one for each sibling,” explains Forster. “Perry’s trustee would have designated who his beneficiaries were, and he may have specifically designated the remains to go to one person or category of people. Or maybe he just said that all my property was divided into shares for these people, and they would just share it.”

If his estate does not go to his parents, it is also possible that the estate will go to the Matthew Perry Foundation, which was set up last week to support those suffering from substance abuse.

Matthew Perry with mom Suzanne and sister Emily.

Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

All about Matthew Perry’s 5 siblings

If his parents decide to “disclaim” the inheritance, his estate will pass to his half-siblings

A potential problem, however, arises with the different levels of real estate taxation. The estate will be taxed at Perry’s level and then, hypothetically, taxed again at his parents’ level when they die if they inherit his wealth in the meantime.

If his parents want to avoid that second taxation, they can do what’s called a “disclaimer” of the inheritance, Esquibias says, which they should do in writing.

“It would be wise for his parents to do what is called a disclaimer. You renounce or reject the inheritance that comes to you. And sometimes people will write, well, if I leave something for you and you reject it, then I can direct where it goes. But if there is nothing in writing, then the law decides where it goes. And in that case, it will go to the children of his parents.”

Zwicker explains that Perry’s parents could opt for this if they already have enough assets and would prefer Perry’s assets to go to his siblings.

“They would say: Hands up, I don’t need this. For tax purposes, to avoid a gift from them, that disclaimer must occur within nine months of Matthew’s death and before they receive any benefit from the estate.”

Perry had five half-siblings between his two parents: Caitlin, Emily, Willa and Madeline Morrison on his mother’s side and Maria Perry on his father’s side.

“The strange thing is that you have to give up or refuse [the inheritance] before you receive it because if you’ve received it, it’s too late, you can’t reject it,” says Esquibias. Once an inheritance is received, the only way to give it away becomes a gift, as Zwicker mentioned.

Perry’s parents would then “have to file a gift tax return and use some or all of their lifetime gift exemption,” Forster says.

For reference, the gift exemption for 2023 is $12,920,000, he says, and next year that number will increase to $13,610,000 due to inflation.

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Source: HIS Education