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

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

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

Without a will or trust, her finances went into a public court file

CBS News noted that the absence of a will means a person’s finances become public, and court filings are how reporters learned what the documents said. Aretha Franklin died on August 16, 2018, at age 76, and in the days after, the Detroit Free Press reported that she left no will or trust, CBS News said.

A trust would have kept this out of the file. Her entertainment lawyer, Don Wilson, told the Free Press he had pushed her for years to set up one, which he said would have kept things private and out of probate. A funded living trust does that: the assets inside it stay out of probate and out of the public file, and trust funding in California covers how to get them there.

Instead, a court filing said she had no will. The Oakland County Probate Court filing, 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 niece Sabrina Owens asked to serve as personal representative.

Three handwritten wills left the family arguing over which one counted

Her family and lawyers first said she had no will, and the AP reported that she left no formal, typewritten one. Handwritten documents with scribbles and hard-to-read passages emerged in 2019 when a niece searched the home for records. 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, and Bennett asked the court to decide whether the three wills were valid under Michigan law.

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.

An estate reported at about $80 million, and an IRS claim against it

The $80 million figure is only an estimate. 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.

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.

The two wills answered the house and the school question differently

Two wills can give two answers to the same question, and Franklin’s did on who got the main house and on whether the sons had to go back to school. 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 AP reported. 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.

Plain, complete instructions in one current document leave less to dispute. On the music, the two wills agree: both versions appear to say that her four sons would share income from her music and copyrights, according to the AP.

A jury took under an hour to choose the 2014 will

With two wills in conflict, a jury made the choice, and it made it quickly. 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. 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.

The jury found the 2014 version was signed by Franklin, who put a smiley face in the letter “A,” the AP reported. Clarence Franklin, the singer’s fourth son, lives under guardianship and did not take part in the trial.

The jury’s decision left the estate unfinished

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 left unclear 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. Almost five years passed between her death and the verdict, and a dispute over her music assets was still open afterward. 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. If someone is already fighting over a will or trust, see trust contest vs. will contest and the will contest definition.

Handwritten wills are valid in Michigan and California, on conditions

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

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 Prob. Code § 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 covers the California rule in full, and the holographic will definition is the short version.

If you’re thinking of writing your own will by hand, read is a handwritten will valid in California first, along with the legal requirements for a California will. If you have no plan at all, see what happens if you die without a will in California. To start your own plan, see estate planning at Ridley Law.

Related celebrity estates

• Celebrity Estates: What Famous Wills, Trusts and Probate Fights Teach
• Prince’s estate: no will and six years of probate
• Chadwick Boseman’s estate: no will, Los Angeles probate
• Robin Williams’s estate: the trust dispute

Frequently asked questions

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.