Jury Decides Case Concerning the Estate of Aretha Franklin - Articles

All Content

Jury Decides Case Concerning the Estate of Aretha Franklin

Posted by: Jarod Word on Jul 12, 2023

A trial regarding the estate of the Aretha Franklin ended yesterday, with a jury acknowledging a four-page holographic document as the singer’s last wishes. The Queen of Soul succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2018 and had not executed a will. It was initially assumed her estate would be divided equally among her four sons until a family member found handwritten documents with conflicting intentions in a locked cabinet, and in a spiral notebook hidden in the crooner’s couch. The discovery upended initial assumptions, and her sons became embroiled in a four-year-long court battle on which document should take precedence, and how to distribute her assets and music rights. The jury deliberated for less than an hour, ultimately finding the most recent document best preserves Franklin’s wishes over an earlier, more detailed will that had her signature on each page. Probate Judge Jennifer S. Callaghan said that even though the 2014 will was recognized by the jury as valid, one of Franklin’s sons can still make a case to include some aspects of the earlier document into the final estate plan. The New York Times has more.