We don’t know for sure, and we probably never will, but it appears Steve Jobs has protected his estate, to the extent he can, through living trusts.  A living trust is a trust established and funded during one’s lifetime.  Lots of trusts are established during the maker’s life, but lots remain unfunded, meaning nothing was ever put into the trust.  When that happens, the trust is like an empty basket — good for nothing.

Forbes magazine reported on October 7 that real estate records from 2009 show that Jobs and his wife transferred three pieces of real estate into two separate trusts.  This doesn’t mean that he transferred all of his assets, such as his Disney stock, with an estimated value of $4.4 billion, because transfers of property other than real estate do not need to be recorded in public records.  But it’s likely he did.  Someone as smart and as private as Steve Jobs probably took the proper steps to minimize his potential estate tax and protect his heirs from the publicity that would surround probate of his estate.

There is a long list of celebrities who failed to properly plan their estates.  As a result, they unnecessarily lost a good part of their estates to the IRS.  Some of these are Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Steig Larsson (author of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Gary Coleman, Sonny Bono and Michael Jackson.