O.J. Simpson was once one of the most famous athletes in America.
He won the Heisman Trophy at the University of Southern California, became an NFL superstar, and later built a successful second career as an actor, television personality, and advertising spokesman. His fame extended far beyond football.
Then everything changed.
On June 12, 1994, Simpson’s former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman were found murdered outside Nicole’s home in Los Angeles. Simpson quickly became the principal suspect.
What followed became one of the most famous criminal cases in American history.
On June 17, 1994, millions of Americans watched live television coverage as police followed a white Ford Bronco carrying Simpson along the highways of Southern California. In a low-speed chase, the Bronco moved slowly down the freeway while police vehicles followed behind. Television networks interrupted their regular programming, and spectators gathered along overpasses and highways to watch.
Simpson was eventually arrested and charged with the murders.
In 1995, after a sensational televised trial, a jury found him not guilty of the murders.
But that was not the end of the legal proceedings.
The Civil Case Changed Everything
The families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman pursued civil claims against Simpson.
In 1997, a civil jury found Simpson liable for the deaths. Ronald Goldman’s parents received $8.5 million in compensatory damages, and the estates of Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were each awarded $12.5 million in punitive damages, bringing the awards to approximately $33.5 million. The California Court of Appeal later affirmed the judgments.
Simpson had been acquitted in the criminal case, but the civil judgment created an enormous financial obligation that would follow him for the rest of his life.
And unlike the criminal prosecution, that financial obligation did not end when Simpson died.
O.J. Simpson’s Last Will
Simpson signed his Last Will and Testament on January 25, 2024. He died on April 10, 2024, at the age of 76.
His will was subsequently filed with the Clark County District Court in Nevada.
A copy of the filed will can be viewed on the KTNV Channel 13 website:
O.J. Simpson’s final will filed in Clark County, estate executor tells Channel 13 what could happen next
The will did not make individual gifts of particular amounts or percentages to Simpson’s children. Instead, it directed his property to the trustee of the Orenthal Simpson Revocable Living Trust, which Simpson created on the same date as the will.
Simpson Was Survived by Four Children
Simpson was survived by four children.
Arnelle and Jason Simpson were his children from his first marriage to Marguerite Whitley. Sydney and Justin Simpson were his children with Nicole Brown Simpson. Simpson and Whitley had another daughter, Aaren, who died as a young child.
The will itself does not tell us how Simpson wanted the property placed in his trust ultimately divided. That information was contained in the separate trust rather than in the publicly filed will.
Later litigation, however, revealed the answer.
In a 2025 lawsuit brought on behalf of Simpson’s estate, the estate alleged that the trust provided that Simpson’s property was to be divided equally among his four surviving children: Justin, Sydney, Jason, and Arnelle. The complaint also described Simpson’s will as a pour-over will transferring his property to the trust.
Thus, although the will itself prevents us from learning how Simpson intended his estate ultimately to be distributed to his heirs, subsequent litigation disclosed his plan: his four children were to share equally.
The Orenthal Simpson Revocable Living Trust
Simpson created the Orenthal Simpson Revocable Living Trust on January 25, 2024, the same day he executed his will.
His will is what estate-planning lawyers commonly call a pour-over will. Instead of distributing the probate estate directly to the ultimate beneficiaries, the will directs the remaining property to the trustee of a trust, where it is then administered according to the terms of the trust.
In Simpson’s case, the intended progression was essentially:
Probate Estate → Trust → Four Children
But there was a major obstacle between the first and second steps.
Simpson had creditors.
The Trust Does Not Get the Probate Estate First
This is perhaps the most interesting part of Simpson’s estate story.
Under the pour-over will, whatever remained in Simpson’s probate estate was to be distributed to the trustee of his revocable living trust.
But the trustee does not receive the probate estate before the estate’s obligations are addressed.
Nevada law establishes a specific order for payment of the debts and charges of an estate. Expenses of administration are first. Funeral expenses, expenses of the last illness, family allowances and several other statutory categories follow. Significantly for Simpson’s estate, Nevada expressly includes judgments entered against the decedent during his lifetime among the claims that must be paid in the statutory order of priority.
Only the probate property remaining after the estate’s obligations have been satisfied is available for distribution under the will.
Put more simply:
The estate’s administration expenses and valid creditor claims must be dealt with before the remaining probate assets can be distributed to the trustee for the beneficiaries.
The Goldman Judgment Followed Simpson Into Probate
This created an enormous problem for Simpson’s estate.
The original civil judgment had remained largely unpaid and had accumulated interest for decades.
In 2025, Simpson’s estate accepted Fred Goldman’s creditor claim for approximately $58 million. Acceptance of the claim did not mean that Goldman received $58 million. Goldman’s attorney explained that acceptance established the claim as valid but did not constitute payment.
The estate apparently had nowhere near enough money to satisfy the claim.
Simpson’s estate representative said that he hoped to assemble only approximately $500,000 to $1 million in total assets.
That produces a remarkable contrast.
Simpson had an estate plan providing for his property to pass through a trust and ultimately be divided equally among his four children.
But the Goldman judgment alone vastly exceeded the apparent value of the probate estate.
Creditors receive assets before beneficiaries.
More precisely, Nevada law requires the estate’s expenses and claims to be handled according to statutory priorities before the remaining estate can be distributed to the trustee under Simpson’s will.
Did Anything Actually Pour Over Into the Trust?
That leads to the question at the heart of Simpson’s estate plan:
Was there anything left to pour over?
The publicly available information does not establish that a final distribution of probate assets has been made to Simpson’s trust.
The estate has instead been attempting to identify, recover and liquidate assets while dealing with its debts and expenses. One particularly interesting example involves Simpson’s Las Vegas residence.
In 2025, Simpson’s estate sued a company owned by his son Justin concerning the ownership of the property. According to the estate’s complaint, Simpson had contributed money toward the purchase, lived there, paid expenses associated with the property and treated it as his home, even though title was held by Justin’s company. The estate sought to recover the property or its financial interest in it. These are allegations in litigation, not adjudicated facts.
The litigation illustrates the administrator’s problem: before anything can be distributed under the will, the estate first has to determine what Simpson actually owned.
Then it has to deal with the estate’s expenses and creditors.
Only then can any remaining probate property pass to the trustee.
Given the enormous disparity between Simpson’s apparent probate assets and the creditor claims against his estate, there may ultimately be little or nothing from the probate estate left to pour into the trust.
A Will Does Not Guarantee an Inheritance
This is what makes Simpson’s will such an interesting estate-planning document.
A person can carefully prepare a will. He can create a trust. He can specify exactly who should ultimately receive his property.
But those documents do not guarantee that the beneficiaries will actually receive an inheritance.
Simpson’s trust called for his property to be divided equally among his four surviving children.
His probate estate, however, was confronted by administration expenses and a civil judgment that had followed him for decades.
The estate plan may have said:
Estate → Trust → Children
Probate law effectively inserted another step:
Estate → Expenses and Creditors → Whatever Is Left → Trust → Children
And when the debts and expenses exceed the available probate assets, the words “whatever is left” can mean nothing at all.
The Estate-Planning Lesson
O.J. Simpson’s will is interesting not because it contains an eccentric bequest or unusual final request.
It is interesting because it demonstrates the difference between deciding who should receive your property and actually having property available for them to receive.
Simpson created a revocable trust for the benefit of his four children and executed a pour-over will directing his probate property to the trustee. Later court filings revealed that the trust called for his property to be divided equally among those children.
But Simpson also died owing an enormous civil judgment.
His civil judgment followed him for the rest of his life—and then followed his estate into probate.
That makes his will a particularly useful estate-planning lesson.
A will can tell everyone who you want to receive your property.
It cannot guarantee that there will be any property left for them to receive.
