If you were hoping to head over to Christie's to bid on James Brown's hair curlers, furniture, stage outfits, and used hairspray bottles, don't book the flight just yet.

The New York Times reports that the Godfather of Soul's infighting heirs still can't get it together. The godfather of soul was a hard-livin' man (see mugshot at right) with several wives, many children, and some grandchildren of questioned parentage. And the estate got complicated too, with a revolving door of trustees accusing each other of mismanaging the estate.

The Christie's auction was scheduled for this coming Thursday but, on Wednesday, a South Carolina judge approved a request for an emergency stay by two former business managers, Albert H. Dallas and Alfred A. Bradley (who had been replaced after they were accused of mismanaging the estate). They say that the current trustees are messing things up.

If you want the details, check out the Times piece -- it's too convoluted to go into here. What does this have to do with personal finance? Very simple: unless you want your estate to resemble James Brown's hair in the picture above, make sure that you have your stuff together.

Papa's gotta brand new bag....

Or maybe you're interested in something else? The pickings promise to be funky when the singer James Brown's estate goes on the block in July.

Court-appointed estate representatives have selected 394 lots to be sold by New York auction house Christie's International by Aug. 1.

The estate of famed soul singer James Brown has been just as complex as his life. His children, grandchildren, people who claim to be his children but haven't yet proven it, three ex-wives and a fourth woman who says she was his wife are all fighting for their cut.

Now it's gotten worse. According to the New York Times, "a lawsuit filed Tuesday by two court-appointed trustees of his estate accuses his longtime business managers, including a retired judge, of stealing millions of dollars from Mr. Brown. The suit, filed in South Carolina state court, also accuses the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, one of its lawyers, and a South Carolina bank of breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and conspiracy to defraud the legendary soul singer."

You can read the Times piece for the sordid details -- This will probably spends years in court before it's fully sorted out, but it certainly serves as a cautionary tale of an estate gone very, very, very wrong.

If this freak show scares you as much as it scares me, consider picking up a copy of Estate Planning for Dummies and making sure your house is in order.