Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul,” died five years ago, in 2018, at age 76 from pancreatic cancer. Through her six-decade career in the music business, she left behind a legacy that included over 75 million record sales, 17 Top 10
hits, and 112 charted Billboard singles! Sadly, after five years, Franklin’s legacy and $80 million dollar estate were tied up in a suburban Detroit court after a niece found different sets of handwritten papers at Franklin’s home.
Aretha Franklin’s assets included a home, as well as lucrative royalties and licensing assets. Despite years of health
problems, however, and numerous drafts, she did not have a formal, typewritten will in place. Under Michigan law, though, it’s possible to treat handwritten documents like the ones found — with scribbles, scratch-outs and hard-to-read passages — as her wishes. But not without a lot of family strife, fighting, private information divulged to the public, and expensive court proceedings that could’ve been avoided had she had properly drafted estate planning documents by an experienced estate
planning attorney in place.
Four Wills Were Found in Aretha Franklin’s Home
