Terry Bollea, the wrestling legend known as Hulk Hogan, named his son, Nicholas "Nick" Bollea, the sole beneficiary of his estate, according to court filings obtained by Us Weekly and reported by multiple outlets. The filings indicate the will had been amended four times, most recently in 2023, and that Hogan's estranged daughter, Brooke Hogan, was not listed as a beneficiary.
The filings and reporting place the value of Hogan's disclosed assets at under $5 million. They list about $799,000 in personal and intellectual property, roughly $200,000 in cryptocurrency, and an estimated $4 million for his right of publicity. The documents did not include the value of any real estate, which the reporting said may be held in a trust or limited liability company and therefore was not listed in the court filing.
The filings identify Hogan's third wife, Melanie Sky Daily, as his surviving spouse. Media reports also said Daily is considering a potential medical malpractice suit related to neck surgery she believes contributed to Hogan's death; the possible value of any such claim was not disclosed in the filings.
Hogan, 71, died in July after suffering cardiac arrest. Brooke Hogan, 37, who is married to former NHL player Steven Oleksy, publicly said shortly after her father's death that she "had to step away to protect my heart" during the final two years of his life. According to TMZ and other reports, Brooke asked to be removed as a beneficiary in 2023 amid concerns about becoming embroiled in a financial dispute.
The most recent will, amended in 2023, reverses earlier estate plans in which family members were more prominently named, according to the reporting. Nick Bollea was listed as the sole beneficiary in the court documents obtained by Us Weekly; the filings submitted in connection with estate administration did not itemize any real property, prompting speculation in some outlets that such assets are controlled outside the probate estate.
Representatives for Brooke Hogan and for Melanie Sky Daily did not immediately respond to requests for comment through the publications reporting the filings. Us Weekly and other outlets cited the court documents as the basis for the asset figures and the beneficiary designation.
Hogan, who rose to international fame in the 1980s and 1990s as a top star in what became World Wrestling Entertainment, maintained a high-profile public life including commercial endorsements and a continued presence in wrestling-related media. His right of publicity, which encompasses the commercial use of his name and likeness, was valued in the reporting at about $4 million and accounts for the largest disclosed portion of the estate. How that valuation will be treated in estate administration or licensing arrangements was not detailed in the filings released to the press.
The disclosure of Hogan's will and the exclusion of Brooke come after years of publicly reported family tensions that intensified in his final years. The court documents and contemporaneous reporting provide a legal snapshot of how Hogan chose to distribute his assets and raise questions about assets not reflected in the filings, which estate administrators and any interested parties may address through probate or separate legal avenues.