Legendary American singer Aretha Franklin tragically died without leaving a Will, according to reports.
The late singer died this month, aged 76, after suffering from pancreatic cancer. It was revealed in court papers obtained by celebrity news website TMZ that Aretha died ‘intestate’ which means she did not have a Will.
The 18-time Grammy Award winner had been suffering from ill health for a number of years and had surgery for an undisclosed tumour back in 2010 – cancelling a series of concerts in 2017 for health reasons.
Reportedly, the renowned Queen of Soul’s four sons, Clarence, Edward, Ted and Kecalf will have equal shares in her estate, according to Michigan Law.
Aretha Franklin’s estate is estimated to be worth around $80m (£62m), according to celebritynetworth.com. As she left no Will or trust to family members, her finances will become public in Oakland County Probate Court, Detroit Free Press claimed.
Aretha’s niece, Sabrina Owens, supposedly asked the court to appoint her as personal representative of the estate.
Clearly, preparing a Will was not top of Franklin’s agenda but UK solicitors continue to warn about the importance of having a Will in place to protect loves ones. In this case it seemingly appears there will not be a family dispute. However, according to Kings Court Trust 2018 UK findings they have seen a number of family disputes increase year on year. The report shows one in twenty adults have a dispute about a Will.
While Writing a will is especially important if you have children or other family who depend on you financially, Kings Court Trust report revealed specific life events, namely having children do not seem to encourage people to write a Will – with only 26% of adults who have children aged four years and under reporting that they have a Will.
As a professional Will-writer, do you think the lack of information or misinformation is the reason why people are not thinking about preparing their Wills?
