Britney Spears granted power to sign estate documents as ‘free, independent woman’

Her lawyer says the singer ‘has the capacity to do whatever she wants’ with respect to planning her estate

Britney Spears has won the right to sign financial paperwork and manage her $50m (£37.8m) estate, amid ongoing legal proceedings in the conservatorship case.

On Wednesday (8 December), Judge Brenda Penny ruled that Spears can now execute her own estate documents, giving the pop star the freedom to manage her finances for the first time since 2008 – when she was placed under a conservatorship presided over by her father Jamie Spears.

Despite being freed from the conservatorship, Spears’s legal team – led by Matthew Rosengart – allege that her father “planted a term” in her estate-planning documents that meant the singer had to seek a judge’s approval for any changes, keeping her “tethered to the court”, according to a Rolling Stone report.

During the Wednesday hearing, Rosengart argued: “Ms Spears, as an independent woman, not under conservatorship, should be able to execute documents herself”.

The Independent has reached out to Mr Spears’s representative for comment.

Judge Penny terminated the legal conservatorship arrangement, which has controlled the “Toxic” singer’s personal and professional life for over a decade, last month.

Now, lawyers for Spears, her father, her accountant John Zable and former management company Tri Star are appearing in hearings to work out a mutually agreed-upon way forward for all those involved in the bitter conservatorship battle.

Britney Spears performs in concert in 2003, five years before she was placed under a conservatorship (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Addressing reporters outside the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse after the brief hearing, Rosengart said the ruling meant his client now “has the capacity to do whatever she wants” with respect to planning her estate as a “free, independent woman”.

Additional reporting from wires