The Buss family trust and the 17.8 per cent that carries a job

On 17 August 2026, a letter from Jeanie Buss’s lawyer, Adam Streisand, went to the parties involved in the sale of the Los Angeles Lakers. CNBC obtained it. The argument was narrow, and it will be familiar to anyone who advises a family holding a control asset: the co-trustees of the JAB Trust cannot sell the trust’s 17.8 per cent stake in the franchise without the approval of all three of them, and a 2017 court order binds them to keep the holding above 15 per cent.

That same day, ESPN reported that five of Jerry Buss’s six children had agreed to sell the stake to the group led by Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, which had bought Mark Walter’s majority position days earlier at a $12.5 billion valuation. A family statement issued through ESPN said it was “time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can”. Streisand’s letter called any such vote “void”, and said acting on it would be “a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and be in contempt of court”. The five siblings replied the following day that they intended to proceed “thoughtfully, respectfully and through the appropriate process”.

Fifteen per cent is not an arbitrary number

NBA rules allow a person to serve as a team’s governor only while holding at least 15 per cent of the franchise. Jeanie Buss is the governor. When the family sold its majority position to Walter in 2025, the deal preserved her in that role for no fewer than five years, but the promise only holds while the trust keeps enough stock to qualify her.

The residual 17.8 per cent is therefore not really a financial position. It is the collateral for a governance arrangement, sitting a fraction above the threshold that gives it meaning. That is what the tag-along clause in the Walter sale now cuts against. The five siblings say the clause entitles them to sell at the price Walter received, and ESPN reported that they executed it. Jeanie’s position is that the trust deed and the 2017 order override it. Both readings can be held in good faith. A court will decide which one prevails.

What the original plan assumed

Jerry Buss bought the Lakers in 1979 and died in February 2013. His 66 per cent passed through the Buss Family Trust to his six children in equal votes, with Jeanie designated governor and given operational authority over the franchise. The structure separated economics from control on purpose: the standard answer to “treat the children equally, but let one of them run it”.

It held for four years. In February 2017 Jeanie dismissed her brother Jim from basketball operations; he and Johnny called a meeting to elect a board without her; she obtained a restraining order, and the family settled on terms confirming her as controlling owner for as long as the family owned the team. The 2017 order Streisand now relies on came out of that settlement.

What the design did not price was a buyer arriving with a number the other five wanted to take. Equal votes are workable while the asset is illiquid. A $12.5 billion valuation makes it liquid.

What it means for family offices

Where control depends on a minimum shareholding, that shareholding is a governance instrument and needs to be drafted as one: locked up, subject to a trustee duty that names the threshold in terms, and carved out of any drag-along or tag-along negotiated at the operating-company level. The Buss dispute shows what happens when the two layers are written by different people at different times. Ryan Austin of Arondight Advisors framed the wider question in Trusts & Estates: as a trophy asset appreciates, the cost of preserving the founder’s structure rises with it, and someone in the family has to carry it. Any family whose control rests on a percentage should be able to say today which document wins when the trust deed and the shareholders’ agreement disagree.

Sources: CNBC; CBS Sports; Trusts & Estates / Wealth Management.