Jackson Estate Steers to Next Challenge: Loan Refinancing

Nearly a year after Michael Jackson's death, the managers overseeing his estate have stabilized its precarious financial situation, but at least one major liability still looms: a $300 million loan due at the end of this year.

Thanks to the surge of fan interest sparked by Mr. Jackson's death, the singer generated an estimated $200 million posthumously, allowing the estate to pay off tens of millions of dollars in debt and avert foreclosure on the suburban Los Angeles complex where the singer's mother lives.

Since Mr. Jackson's death last June 25, his businesses have been run by the singer's longtime lawyer, John Branca, and a music-industry veteran and personal friend of Mr. Jackson's named John McClain. Unlike traditional executors, Messrs. Branca and McClain are aggressively managing Mr. Jackson's affairs as a going concern. The estate's primary beneficiaries are Mr. Jackson's three young children and his 80-year-old mother, Katherine, who is now the children's guardian.

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