Nearly five years after Aretha Franklin’s death, her condition is finally on the verge of being resolved.
A jury trial is set to begin Monday in Oakland County Probate Court, likely bringing a conclusion to a long, thorny saga involving the Queen of Soul’s estate, music royalties and heirs.
At issue are two handwritten wills discovered after the singer’s August 2018 death, each containing unique circumstances and conflicting instructions about the singer’s last wishes. The disputed documents deepen the disputes between the sons of the star.
The trial will decide which of the documents should prevail – determining how the assets will be distributed to the sons and other potential heirs.
Presiding over the six-person jury trial will be Judge Jennifer Callaghan, who has presided over Franklin’s case since 2018.
Here’s a recap:
Days after Franklin’s death, court filings showed the singer had not prepared a will or trust, despite his long battle with a rare pancreatic disease.
One of his longtime attorneys told the Detroit Free Press that he had advised Franklin for years to handle it: “It would speed things up and keep them out of probate, and keep things private,” he said then. time.
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More:Aretha Franklin’s handwritten testaments reveal a window into her private world
The status of the will changed dramatically in May 2019. While preparing Franklin’s Bloomfield Hills home for an appraisal, niece Sabrina Owens, then the personal representative for the estate, discovered a handwritten will locked on a table.
Dated June 21, 2010, the 11-page document was accompanied by a handwritten note declaring the will “current and correct!”
Michigan is one of 26 states that accept handwritten (or “holographic”) wills as valid. So the matter may have been cut and dried – except that Owens soon discovered another handwritten note tucked inside a spiral notebook and tucked under a pillow on a living room sofa.
That one ran four pages and was dated March 31, 2014.
The latter will usually come first. But the 2010 document was notarized and signed, while the 2014 one was not.
An expert testified that the documents matched Franklin’s known handwriting.
The two documents, written in a gregarious scrawl and lined with personal pages, provide a rare and revealing window into a private life that Franklin guarded for decades.
In a 2010 will, he stated that he was of sound mind and health while citing “a mass on the pancreas.” Franklin spent the next eight years sporadically canceling tour dates and falling out of the public eye, and he eventually succumbed to a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. The situation was revealed to the public after his death.
In spring 2021, probate proceedings were halted for a year by the COVID-19 pandemic when another blockbuster dropped: A newly discovered, typewritten will was submitted to the court by Franklin’s son Ted White.
Drafted for Franklin in early 2018 by Troy law firm Dickinson Wright, just months before he passed, the typed document contained clear instructions for his estate and repossession. all former testaments.
But there was a catch: Franklin never signed it.
Under Michigan law, that’s not a deal-breaker. However, after a hearing in April, Callaghan ruled last month that the document was an unfinished draft and would not be part of next week’s trial.
• Aretha Franklin handwritten letter October 20, 2010
• Aretha Franklin handwritten will June 21, 2010
• Aretha Franklin’s handwriting will be March 31, 2014
•Petition to accept Aretha Franklin’s handwritten wills
Franklin had four sons. The eldest, 68-year-old Clarence Franklin, has special needs and is under a guardianship. Both handwritten wills included provisions for her care.
For the other three sons – Edward Franklin, 65; Ted White II, 59; and Kecalf Franklin, 53 – the biggest bone of contention is the distribution of assets, particularly Franklin’s primary residence on Turtle Pond Court in a gated community in Bloomfield Hills.
The 2010 document calls for the plum property to be jointly owned by Ted and Kecalf, although they must take business classes and must provide a “1St home class for Edward,” wrote Aretha Franklin.
The 2014 document, on the other hand, gives Bloomfield Hills as Kecalf’s only home. Unlike his older brothers, he created a large family with two daughters and two sons – Aretha’s grandchildren.
The 2014 instructions marked another property in Bloomfield Hills for Edward, with a house in Palmer Woods in Detroit going to Ted.
The two wills also deal with different situations for the distribution of Franklin’s cash, jewelry, furs, furniture, copyrights and other assets.
Owens, who discovered the wills while serving as executor of the estate, resigned from the position in early 2020, frustrated that a “fractured relationship” had developed within the family.
The court then appointed Detroit attorney Reginald Turner to act as personal representative for the estate. His Clark Hill colleague Nicholas Papasifakis took over the role upon Turner’s retirement.
Throughout the probate process, the judge encouraged the siblings to work out a solution through mediation. But they failed to agree on a deal, prompting a trial next week.
Probate can determine which of the handwritten wills should be restrictive.
Or the jury could throw out both. In that case, Franklin would be considered intestate, with his assets to be divided equally among his sons.
As the probate process continues, there is an elephant in the room: the Internal Revenue Service.
Franklin died with a $7.8 million debt to the IRS, the agency admitted. While his estate continues to pay the tax bill, its existence creates a logjam, preventing other creditors from being paid and tying up funds – even as money is rolled in from music royalties and other project.
In April 2021, the estate settled with the IRS, setting up an accelerated payment schedule while allowing limited payments to Franklin’s children.
The IRS debt was paid in full last summer, finally clearing the way for a final resolution of Franklin’s post-death affairs.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
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