Chuck warns reggae families, make wills to avoid estate wars

In reggae, the fight after a singer dies can last longer than the hit. Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has warned that “dead lef” disputes are tearing through Jamaican music families, with estate battles threatening not just money, but the catalogs, land and reputations artists spend a lifetime building.

The warning lands with extra force because Bunny Wailer’s own estate became a cautionary tale. After his death in March 2021, his family and beneficiaries were locked in dispute for about three years before the Supreme Court of Jamaica granted permission for administration to begin in 2024 and recognized his 13 children as the sole beneficiaries. Reporting on the case said the family split into factions, with some seeking to remove eldest son Abijah Asadenaki Livingston as executor. The dispute also pulled in Maxine Stowe and raised questions over control of Bunny Wailer’s intellectual property, including Solomonic Productions and the song Electric Boogie.

Chuck has tied that kind of family fracture to a much wider national problem. In April 2025, he said the Administrator General’s Department was managing more than J$50 billion in property and another J$5 billion in bank accounts because many Jamaicans had died without making wills. He said unresolved intestate estates create disputes among would-be beneficiaries and place a heavy burden on the department, while leaving families to fight over assets at the worst possible time.

The minister has also pushed a practical fix for smaller estates. In March 2025, he said relatives of people who died without wills could contact the Administrator General’s Department to administer personal property valued at up to J$1.5 million under a gazetted order. He said that step should cut legal fees and help families recover bank funds or transfer vehicles faster, a move aimed at easing some of the delay that turns grief into paperwork and resentment.

Chuck has made the same appeal before. He urged Jamaicans to make wills during an Administrator General’s Department road show in July 2023, and again in September 2024 he said wills are crucial to prevent family fights over property and inheritance. In April 2025, he returned to the issue and said public awareness remained vital because many Jamaicans still do not understand estate planning.

For reggae families, the message is plain. Without a will, a catalogue can become a battlefield, a yard can become a court file, and a legacy can fracture into pieces just when it should be preserved.