More than a year after Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death, the legal fight over his estate is expanding beyond a disputed trust and into real estate.

Warner’s widow, Tenisha Warner, alleges that her late husband’s mother, Pamela Warner, sold the Studio City, California, home where the actor lived with his wife and daughter and then moved the proceeds into the Warner Family Trust. Real estate records show the property sold for $1.6 million in May, according to Complex.

Tenisha claims the home was intended for her and MacKenzie and that their daughter formed important memories there with her father. She also alleges that Pamela offered her and MacKenzie a home in Georgia carrying a $700,000 mortgage instead.

The dispute centers on what Warner intended to leave behind for his wife and their 9-year-old daughter, MacKenzie. Tenisha has argued that Malcolm’s estate documents were outdated since the Warner Family Trust was created in 1996, years before he met Tenisha and before their daughter was born. According to court filings reported by USA TODAY, the trust allocated 70% of the assets to Pamela, 15% to Malcolm’s father, and 15% to his half-sister. Tenisha and MacKenzie were not beneficiaries under those terms.

“This was not Malcolm’s intent,” Tenisha said in a legal filing.

She has also argued that Malcolm was working toward a new estate plan before his death in July 2025 but never completed it.

Pamela has presented a different account of the estate dispute. In previous filings, she said Tenisha rejected a proposed settlement that would have provided the majority of the trust and estate to MacKenzie. Pamela has since reached an agreement with the court-appointed guardian representing her granddaughter. Tenisha disputes that she simply refused to settle, saying she has “refused to capitulate to unfair pressure and tactics.” She also alleges that access to a $2.4 million retirement account has been withheld unless she accepts the proposed settlement.

The financial stakes are significant. Tenisha previously filed a lawsuit for more than $1.2 million for what she says she is owed under a premarital agreement, including a $1 million life insurance obligation, retirement-related payments, and compensation for her work as Malcolm’s assistant and chief of staff.

At the heart of the fight is a familiar estate-planning lesson: wealth can become complicated quickly when trusts, real estate, marital agreements, and beneficiary designations are not updated as families change. For the Warner family, those documents are now being tested in court — with Malcolm’s legacy at the center of the dispute.

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