Paris Jackson has filed a new motion challenging the documentation behind $109.2 million in fees connected with her father Michael Jackson’s estate. She argues that John Branca’s financial accountings for 2023 and 2024 lack sufficient detail and asks for his management rate to fall from 15% to 10%. The estate rejects her claims, while the court has not ruled on the new request.
Paris Jackson has renewed her challenge to the financial management of Michael Jackson’s estate, focusing on a fee request exceeding $109 million. The motion, reported on October 28, 2026, questions the information supplied by longtime administrator John Branca. Her argument concerns whether the accounts contain enough detail to evaluate the requested compensation, rather than a ruling already establishing wrongdoing.
The exact amount cited is $109,219,648.27. It represents combined compensation involving the co-executors and the Ziffren law firm, not a personal payment of that size to Branca alone. That distinction matters when describing the dispute. No court finding establishes that this entire amount was paid unlawfully, and the request remains subject to competing accounts from those involved.
According to Paris Jackson, the 2023 and 2024 statements do not satisfy the financial disclosure obligations accompanying such substantial payment requests. She maintains that submitting documents is insufficient if the necessary information about income and expenditure is missing. Her lawyers frame complete and accurate accountings as a basic responsibility of management before corresponding payments are approved.
The motion uses strong criticism of the gap she sees between the requested fees and the allegedly inadequate records. Those descriptions belong to her case, not to a judicial finding on the new motion. She also says the dispute is not her first attempt to question the completeness of documents, placing the current request within continuing demands for greater financial detail.
Paris Jackson asks the court to reduce Branca’s management compensation from 15% to 10% of gross entertainment-related income. She wants the change applied to 2023 and 2024 and subsequent years until a complete 2026 accounting is supplied. She also seeks her legal costs, presenting the requested rate reduction as a way to encourage compliance with disclosure requirements.
The estate’s response rejects both the accounting allegations and the proposed reduction. A spokesperson calls the motion without merit and says the executors waived ordinary executor compensation from the outset. According to that response, the payments at issue rest on a separate basis: a court-ordered management fee for operating the Michael Jackson business.
The distinction between ordinary executor compensation and business-management pay is central to the disagreement. The estate says Paris Jackson’s request confuses those categories, while her side says the management fee itself is what should be reduced. The court has not resolved that new dispute, so neither description should be presented as an agreed account shared by both parties.
The estate also disputes the picture of delay. It says accountings for 2023 and 2024 have been filed and those for 2025 and 2026 were not yet due. Her position is that filing documents does not settle whether they are complete. The disagreement therefore concerns the adequacy and timing of disclosure as well as the size of compensation.
Branca’s professional connection with Michael Jackson dates to 1980, and he became an estate administrator after the singer’s 2009 death. He worked for years with John McClain on rights and commercial activity. McClain died in May 2026, leaving Branca as the principal administrator, although the financial period now discussed includes the years when two co-executors were involved.
The estate’s activities include music rights, catalogue agreements and other commercial projects continuing after the singer’s death. Branca has argued that his team inherited approximately $500 million in debt and helped build an enterprise worth more than $2 billion. That account of the business’s performance forms a principal argument in support of the management arrangements and compensation.
Paris Jackson’s objections predate this motion. In November 2025, she criticised estate decisions, including work connected with her father’s biographical film, arguing that some choices served administrators more than family interests. The estate rejected those allegations and defended its strategy, pointing towards the financial results of its work rather than accepting her account of its motivations.
One earlier point concerned Miles Teller playing Branca in the film, which she treated as an example of the profile administrators received. The other side described her objections as an unjustified burden on the estate and court. That disagreement concerned different decisions from the 2023–2024 accountings now at issue, so the disputes should not be collapsed into one identical claim.
In a separate spring 2026 matter, a judge ordered the return of $625,000 in bonuses paid to three outside law firms because the evidence did not adequately justify them. That ruling concerned those specific legal payments. It was not a decision determining the validity of the $109.2 million compensation request challenged in the latest motion.
For Paris Jackson, the new application seeks fuller accountability around financial decisions. The estate maintains its records and payments have the required legal basis. The proposed cut from 15% to 10% has not been approved, and no ruling on the new request has been reported. The claims, responses and documents therefore remain matters for the court to examine.
IMAGE_CREDIT: Leon Bennett / Getty Images for The Recording Academy
