Aretha Franklin died without a will

The Guardian ^ | 09-02-2018 | AP

[NRx]

Aretha Franklin, who died last month at the age of 76, did not leave a will. Her four sons and other family members are thus left to find out how much the Queen of Soul was worth, and to divide it up. The process could take years and is likely to play out in public.

Estate law experts expressed surprise but not shock that a wealthy person like Franklin would put off a will until it was too late. One of the singer’s attorneys said he urged her repeatedly to draft one.

“I tried to convince her that she should do not just a will but a trust while she was still alive,” says Don Wilson, a Los Angeles lawyer who worked for Franklin for nearly 30 years. “She never told me, ‘No, I don’t want to do one.’ She understood the need. It just didn’t seem to be something she got around to.”

Papers filed in Michigan’s Oakland county court last week by David J Bennett, the lawyer who worked most closely with Franklin, lay out the few known basics. She was not married and left four sons, aged 48 to 63: Clarence Franklin, Edward Franklin, Kecalf Franklin and Ted White Jr. Clarence, Aretha’s eldest, is incapacitated and represented by a guardian.

A niece has accepted the role of executor. Under Michigan law, as in most states, the sons will equally divide their mother’s assets in the absence of a will. So far no sign of conflict has emerged.

[equaviator]

So Aretha Franklin
Died with out a will

Don’t you know they’re starving
In No’f Ko-rea