Legal wrangling over $12.5B Lakers sale shows how family trusts don’t guarantee a business stays in the family

Filed 2d ago · Via The Conversation · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Waltz (Tschikovsky Op. 40)

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Michael Harris · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

A group led by Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner has offered $12.5 billion for the Lakers, a record for a sports franchise, but Jeanie Buss — the team's governor since her father Jerry Buss died in 2013 — says she isn't selling. Her five siblings, who together control the family's remaining 17.8% stake through a trust, reportedly are ready to sell. The dispute hinges on trust terms and a 2025 sale agreement that aren't public, plus a 2017 court order affirming Jeanie Buss's control.

The situation echoes prior trust fights over the Broncos, Chargers, and Orioles, where equal inheritance shares did not produce equal enthusiasm for keeping a team in the family. Whether Jeanie Buss stays as governor depends on maintaining at least 15% ownership under NBA rules, a threshold this sale could erase.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Estate planners can draft all the succession clauses they like, but nothing forces siblings to actually want the same thing forever. Jerry Buss apparently built a legal fortress around his daughter's role, and it may still not survive six people doing math on a $12.5 billion number.

Source: Read the original at The Conversation → Scored: Waltz (Tschikovsky Op. 40) · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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