5 Estate Planning Lessons From Aretha Franklin’s Will

Singer Aretha Franklin taught her fans about respect, pride and gospel during her long career. Five years after her death, she’s giving us all a lesson about how to provide for our heirs — and how not to.

Franklin, who was known as the Queen of Soul and sang such hits as “Respect” and “Think,” died Aug. 16, 2018. She was thought to have passed away without a will, meaning that the bulk of her fortune in real estate, jewelry and music royalties would be split among her four sons by a judge. Her niece, Sabrina Owens, volunteered to be executor, the person tasked with divvying up an estate.

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While combing through Franklin’s home after her death, Owens discovered not one but two handwritten wills. A Michigan jury decided on July 11 that Franklin’s handwritten will from 2014, found in her couch, is valid and overrides a 2010 will discovered around the same time in a locked cabinet in her home.

It’s not unusual for people to die intestate — estate planning jargon for dying without a will — but it’s unusual for someone with substantial assets to do so. It’s also unusual for someone like Franklin, a wealthy celebrity with access to lawyers and a familiarity with legal contracts, to leave a holographic will, which is the legal term for such a handwritten document. Which leads us to the estate planning lessons that can be learned from the to-do over the Queen of Soul’s competing wills:

1. In many states, a handwritten will left in a couch can be as valid as one drawn up by lawyers and filed at a courthouse. According to LegalZoom, a handwritten will is valid in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming. Franklin died in Michigan.

Most states require the will to be in the same handwriting and signed by the person making the will, known as the testator. They also require the testator to indicate that she is writing a will, rather than just making notes. In some states, the will must be signed. And when the will goes to probate — the legal process of administrating and distributing an estate — many states will require the testimony of witnesses who saw the will being written or who can identify the handwriting.

2. A will should be clear. “One of the best gifts you can leave your family is clarity,” says Joyce Streithorst, a certified financial planner (CFP) in Melville, New York. “Having a will that matches your wishes and correct beneficiary designations can save a lot of headaches and heartaches.”