A handwritten will in a spiral notebook found wedged between couch cushions months after Aretha Franklin’s 2018 death is valid, a jury in Pontiac, Michigan, has decided. The July 11, 2023, verdict ended a yearslong legal dispute among three of the soul singer’s four sons over which of three informal wills found in her home should take precedence over the others. As a result, the four-page document, drafted in 2014, will now guide how the singer’s multimillion-dollar estate and royalties will be distributed among her heirs.
The Conversation asked Reid Kress Weisbord and David Horton, two legal scholars who are experts on wills and trusts, to explain what the verdict means and how others can avoid this situation.
