THE troubled pop star Britney Spears has been warned by financial advisers that she may be broke within four years.

Spears, 26, who had her first No 1 hit in 1999, built up a fortune of £80m but according to newly released court documents, has just £20m left. Last week, her parents, James and Lynne Spears, and Andrew Wallet, a lawyer appointed by a Los Angeles judge to run her estate with her mother, held a financial summit at the singer’s Los Angeles home.

Her father, a former builder, warned that she was in danger of ending up like Michael Jackson, 49, whose Neverland ranch is due to be sold by creditors at public auction this month.

“Britney was very wide-eyed and attentive ... but ... she’s as addicted to buying houses and new Mercedes as she is to the attention of the paparazzi,” said a business associate.

“There was a moment when her mother said she could be out of money within four years, and her two children would still be at grade [primary] school, when she sat up and took notice.” Her income is believed to be in decline. Blackout, her most recent album, and Believe, her fifth Elizabeth Arden perfume from a range that used to earn her £2m a year, have failed to match earlier sales.

Yet friends say that under the guardianship of her parents, she may be coming back from the edge: last weekend she was reunited with her sons Preston, 2, and Jayden, 17 months, for the first time since she was admitted to a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital in January.

Video: Britney hits the shopping trail

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