# Aretha Franklin’s Will: Handwritten Wills, a Couch, and a Michigan Jury

> Aretha Franklin's 2014 handwritten will, found under couch cushions, was ruled valid by a Michigan jury in 2023. See what the law says about handwritten wills.

Source: https://ridleylawoffices.com/celebrity-estates/aretha-franklin-will/

By Eric Ridley, attorney, Ridley Law. Updated October 2026.

Aretha Franklin died on August 16, 2018, and her family and lawyers first said she had no will. In May 2019, three handwritten wills were filed in Oakland County, Michigan. In July 2023 a jury found that the 2014 document, found in a notebook under couch cushions, was a valid Michigan will, the Associated Press reported. Michigan law, MCL 700.2502(2), allows a handwritten will if it is dated and the signature and material portions are in the testator’s handwriting.

![Aretha Franklin at The Gospel Tradition: In Performance at the White House in April 2015](/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/aretha-franklin-will.jpg)

Aretha Franklin, 2015. Photo: Pete Souza / The White House. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

## What was Aretha Franklin’s net worth when she died?

Outlets estimate about $80 million, but I found no court inventory that confirms it. The Los Angeles Times described her estate in July 2023 as “estimated at more than $80 million,” and Forbes contributor Robert W. Wood wrote in July 2022 that it was “estimated to be worth approximately $80 million.” Neither says who made the estimate.

The estate also faced a tax bill. NPR reported in 2019 that the IRS filed a claim for more than $6 million against the estate, and Rolling Stone, citing the Detroit News, put it at more than $6.3 million for 2012 through 2018. The estate’s attorney said at least $3 million had already been paid and disputed the rest. A Michigan jury upheld her 2014 handwritten will in July 2023, and the AP reported that both versions of her will appear to say her four sons share income from her music and copyrights.

**3**

handwritten wills filed in Oakland County probate court (NPR, 2019)

**Under 1 hour**

jury deliberation on the 2014 will (AP, 2023)

**About 5 years**

from her death (2018) to the jury verdict (2023)

**$1.1M**

2018 value of the Bloomfield Hills home (AP, 2023)

Aretha Franklin’s estate is the best-known modern case of a handwritten will. The papers were hard to read, they conflicted with each other, and one of them turned up in a couch. The facts below come from the Associated Press, NPR, CBS News and the Michigan Legislature.

## Did Aretha Franklin have a will?

Yes, though nobody knew it at first. Aretha Franklin left no formal, typewritten will, the AP reported, but handwritten documents with scribbles and hard-to-read passages emerged in 2019 when a niece searched the home for records.

In the days after her death in August 2018, the Detroit Free Press reported that she left no will or trust, CBS News said. A filing in Oakland County Probate Court, signed by her son Kecalf Franklin and her estate attorney, David Bennett, stated that “the decedent died intestate,” according to the Free Press as quoted by CBS News. Her entertainment lawyer, Don Wilson, told the Free Press he had pushed her for years to set up a trust, which he said would have kept things private and out of probate.

## Where were Aretha Franklin’s handwritten wills found?

In her Detroit-area home. Three handwritten wills, one from 2014 and two from 2010, were filed in Oakland County probate court on a Monday in May 2019, NPR reported.

According to the filing NPR reviewed, the March 2014 will was in a spiral notebook, under couch cushions in her living room. The two 2010 wills were in a locked cabinet. NPR described the 2014 document as four pages, nearly illegible in places and full of cross-outs and notes in the margins. Bennett asked the court to decide whether the three wills were valid under Michigan law.

## What did the jury decide in 2023?

On July 11, 2023, an Oakland County jury decided that the 2014 handwritten document is a valid Michigan will, the AP reported.

The trial started the day before at Oakland County Probate Court in Pontiac, and the jury deliberated less than an hour. Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin argued the 2014 papers should override the 2010 will. Their brother Ted White II favored the 2010 will, and his lawyer pointed out that it was kept under lock and key. The jury found the 2014 version was signed by Franklin, who put a smiley face in the letter “A,” the AP reported.

In closing, Kecalf’s lawyer Charles McKelvie told the jury that you can leave your will on the kitchen counter and it’s still your will. Edward’s lawyer, Craig Smith, pointed to the first line of the document, which he said says it is her will. Clarence Franklin, the singer’s fourth son, lives under guardianship and did not take part in the trial, the AP reported.

## How did the 2014 will differ from the 2010 will?

The AP reported two differences. Under the 2014 will, Kecalf Franklin and Franklin’s grandchildren would get her main home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which was valued at $1.1 million at her death. The 2010 will required Kecalf and Edward to take business classes and earn a certificate or a degree to benefit from the estate, and the 2014 version does not include that condition.

Both versions appear to say that her four sons would share income from her music and copyrights, according to the AP.

## What happened after the verdict?

The jury answered one question and left others open. Judge Jennifer Callaghan told the parties to file briefs on whether parts of the 2010 will should still be carried out and whether Kecalf Franklin could serve as executor, the AP reported in July 2023.

On Monday, November 27, 2023, the judge awarded real estate to the sons, citing the 2014 will, the AP reported. Kecalf Franklin received the Bloomfield Hills home. Ted White II was given a house in Detroit that the estate had already sold for $300,000, and his brother’s attorney said White was requesting the sale proceeds. Judge Callaghan awarded Edward Franklin another property. The AP reported that the judge said the 2014 will did not clearly say who should get one property worth more than $1 million, which would likely be sold with the proceeds shared among the four sons.

The AP also reported that a dispute over how to handle Franklin’s music assets remained open, and that a status conference was set for January. I did not find a court order closing the estate in the sources I could load, so I can’t tell you it has ended.

## Is a handwritten will valid in Michigan?

Yes, if it is dated and the signature and the material portions are in the testator’s own handwriting. That is MCL 700.2502(2), which says a will that fails the usual two-witness test “is valid as a holographic will, whether or not witnessed,” on those conditions.

The statute’s regular rule in subsection (1) is a will in writing, signed by the testator, and signed by at least two individuals who witnessed the signing or the testator’s acknowledgment of it. Subsection (3) adds that intent that a document is a will can be shown by extrinsic evidence, including, for a holographic will, parts of the document that are not in the testator’s handwriting. The version I checked is current through Public Act 103 of 2026, and the section was last amended in 2020.

California handles it a little differently. California Probate Code section 6111(a) validates a holographic will if the signature and the material provisions are in the testator’s handwriting, and subdivision (b) deals with what happens when the will carries no date. The [handwritten wills page](https://ridleylawoffices.com/handwritten-wills/) covers the California rule in full, and the [holographic will definition](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/holographic-will/) is the short version.

## Timeline of the Aretha Franklin estate

| Date | Event |
| --- | --- |
| August 16, 2018 | Aretha Franklin dies at age 76 |
| August 2018 | Probate filing states she died intestate; niece Sabrina Owens asks to serve as personal representative |
| May 2019 | Three handwritten wills (2010 and 2014) filed in Oakland County probate court |
| July 11, 2023 | Jury finds the 2014 document is a valid will |
| November 27, 2023 | Judge awards real estate to the sons under the 2014 will |

## What this means for your own plan

- Two handwritten documents from different years, one locked up and one in a couch, produced a jury trial. A signed, witnessed will and a clean revocation of the old ones make that trial unnecessary.
- The two wills differed on who got the Bloomfield Hills home and on whether the sons had to take business classes. Plain, complete instructions in one current document leave less to dispute.
- CBS News noted in 2018 that the absence of a will means a person’s finances become public, and the filings are how reporters learned what the documents said.
- Her entertainment lawyer said he asked her for years to set up a trust, according to the Free Press as reported by CBS News. A funded living trust keeps the assets inside it out of probate and out of the public file.

If you’re thinking of writing your own will by hand, read [is a handwritten will valid in California](https://ridleylawoffices.com/handwritten-wills/) first, along with [the legal requirements for a California will](https://ridleylawoffices.com/legal-requirements-wills-california/). If someone is already fighting over a will or trust, see [trust contest vs. will contest](https://ridleylawoffices.com/trust-contest-vs-will-contest-california/) and [the will contest definition](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/will-contest/). For funding a trust so the assets avoid probate, see [trust funding in California](https://ridleylawoffices.com/trust-funding/), and for the other path if you have no plan, see [what happens if you die without a will in California](https://ridleylawoffices.com/dying-without-a-will-california/). To start your own plan, see [estate planning at Ridley Law](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning/).

## Related celebrity estates

- [Celebrity Estates: What Famous Wills, Trusts and Probate Fights Teach](https://ridleylawoffices.com/celebrity-estates/)
- [Prince’s estate: no will and six years of probate](https://ridleylawoffices.com/celebrity-estates/prince-estate/)
- [Chadwick Boseman’s estate: no will, Los Angeles probate](https://ridleylawoffices.com/celebrity-estates/chadwick-boseman-estate/)
- [Robin Williams’s estate: the trust dispute](https://ridleylawoffices.com/celebrity-estates/robin-williams-estate/)

Sources

- Associated Press, [“Jury decides 2014 document found in Aretha Franklin’s couch is a valid will,”](https://wdet.org/2023/07/11/jury-decides-2014-document-found-in-aretha-franklins-couch-is-a-valid-will/) July 11, 2023, as published by WDET.
- Associated Press, [“Judge awards Aretha Franklin’s property to her sons,”](https://www.npr.org/2023/11/29/1215757780/judge-awards-aretha-franklin-properties-sons-handwritten-will) November 29, 2023, as published by NPR.
- NPR, [“3 Wills Found At Aretha Franklin’s Home,”](https://www.npr.org/2019/05/21/725345750/three-wills-found-at-aretha-franklins-home) May 21, 2019.
- CBS News, [“Aretha Franklin reportedly left no will,”](https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/aretha-franklin-death-will/) August 2018, citing the Detroit Free Press.
- NPR, [“A 2014 note found in Aretha Franklin’s couch is a valid will, a jury rules,”](https://npr.org/2023/07/11/1187145704/aretha-franklin-will-estate-sons-inheritance) July 11, 2023.
- Michigan Legislature, [MCL 700.2502, Estates and Protected Individuals Code](https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-700-2502).
- California Legislature, Probate Code [§ 6111](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&division=6.&title=&part=1.&chapter=2.&article=).
- [Los Angeles Times, Aretha Franklin’s will found in her couch is valid](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-07-11/jury-aretha-franklin-handwritten-will-found-in-couch-is-valid) (2023-07)
- [Forbes (Robert W. Wood), Aretha Franklin Estate Settles IRS Tax Claims](https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2022/07/14/aretha-franklin-estate-settles-irs-tax-claims/) (2022-07)
- [Rolling Stone, IRS Claims Aretha Franklin’s Estate Owes Millions in Back Taxes](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/aretha-franklin-estate-millions-back-taxes-irs-773372/) (2018-12)