R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Find out what handwritten wills mean to me
Aretha Franklin was the Queen of Soul. She sold millions of records, won 18 Grammys, and built a music legacy that continues to live on today.
But when Franklin died in 2018, her family faced a surprisingly basic question:
Who did she actually want to inherit her estate?
At first, her family believed she died without a will. Then they started finding handwritten documents around her home.
One was found in a locked cabinet.
Another was found in a spiral notebook under the cushions of her couch.
The documents did not say the same thing.
What followed was a years-long court fight between Franklin's sons over which document represented their mother's final wishes.
For most families, the estate will not include famous songs or millions of dollars. But the problem can be exactly the same: if you leave behind unclear or conflicting instructions, your family may be left to figure out what you meant after you're gone.
And figuring it out in court can be far more expensive than getting the plan right in the first place.
Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Estate planning and probate laws vary by state, and anyone dealing with a handwritten will or disputed estate should contact The Law Offices of Rodono and Haydt to discuss.
The wills found after Aretha Franklin died
After Franklin died, several handwritten documents were discovered inside her home.
One was a 2010 document found in a locked cabinet.
Another was a 2014 document written in a spiral notebook and found under couch cushions.
The documents contained different instructions for Franklin's property and her four sons: Clarence, Edward, Ted White Jr., and Kecalf Franklin.
That created an unusual problem.
Before the family could divide Franklin's estate, they first had to determine which document was actually her will.
And the story would get even stranger. Shortly before Franklin died, attorneys had actually prepared another will for her.
But she never signed it.
The will found in the couch
The 2014 document did not look like what most people imagine when they think about the will of a wealthy celebrity.
It was handwritten in a spiral notebook. Parts were difficult to read. There were crossed-out words and changes. And it had been sitting underneath Franklin's couch cushions.
But that did not automatically make it invalid.
Michigan law allows certain handwritten wills. So the question was not whether Franklin's will looked professional. The question was whether it met the legal requirements to be treated as her will.
Franklin's sons disagreed about which document should control.
The dispute eventually went to a jury in 2023, nearly five years after Franklin died.
The jury decided that the 2014 handwritten document found in the couch was Franklin's valid will.
That meant the less formal document found under the couch cushions controlled over the earlier document kept in a locked cabinet.
Why the difference mattered
This wasn't simply a fight over which piece of paper looked more official.
Franklin's sons had real reasons to care about which document controlled.
Ted White Jr. supported the 2010 will. His brothers Kecalf and Edward supported the 2014 will found in the couch.
Under the 2010 document, Ted was named to help manage the estate. The 2014 document instead put Kecalf in that role.
There were also major differences in what the sons would receive.
The 2014 will left Franklin's main home in Bloomfield Hills to Kecalf and Franklin's grandchildren. The house was valued at about $1.1 million when Franklin died.
The 2010 document also said Kecalf and Edward needed to take business classes and earn a certificate or degree before they could benefit from the estate. That requirement disappeared from the 2014 will.
So determining which will controlled had real financial consequences for Franklin's children.
And then there was the unsigned will.
In the months before Franklin died, a law firm had prepared a new, typed will for her. That document would have revoked the earlier wills — but Franklin never signed it. Before the 2023 trial, the probate judge ruled that the unsigned document was only an unfinished draft.
That left Franklin's family fighting over the handwritten documents she had left behind.
Because Franklin was no longer alive to explain what she meant, the family had to turn to the court for an answer.
That meant lawyers, court filings, hearings, and eventually a jury trial.
And those costs were substantial.
An estate accounting filed before the trial showed that Franklin's estate had paid more than $900,000 in legal fees to various law firms during the prior 12-month accounting period alone. Not all of those fees were necessarily caused by the fight over the wills, but the number shows how expensive a complicated estate administration can become.
Saving money by preparing an estate plan yourself can become very expensive if your family later has to hire lawyers to figure out what the plan means.
Saving a few hundred or a few thousand dollars on an estate plan today can expose your family to legal fees many times that amount later. A serious will contest can require months or years of attorney time and the expenses that come with it.
Could this happen in California?
Yes.
California also recognizes certain handwritten wills, which are sometimes called holographic wills.
Under California Probate Code section 6111, a handwritten will can be valid without witnesses if certain requirements are met, including that the signature and important parts of the will are in the person's handwriting.
So a handwritten will is not automatically invalid just because an attorney did not prepare it.
But valid does not always mean clear.
Imagine finding two handwritten documents after a parent dies.
One is kept with the parent's important papers. Another was written several years later and found in a notebook.
They say different things.
Which one controls?
Was the newer document meant to replace the older one? Was it only a draft? Were both supposed to work together?
Those are exactly the kinds of questions that can turn an estate administration into a court case.
The problem with DIY estate planning
Most people start estate planning with one question:
Who gets my property when I die?
A good estate plan has to answer much more than that:
Who will be in charge?
What happens to the family home or family business?
What happens if a beneficiary dies before you?
What happens if you change your mind later?
How will everyone know which document contains your final wishes?
These questions matter even if your estate is nowhere near the size of Aretha Franklin's.
A house, retirement account, small business, investment account, or sentimental family property can be more than enough to create a serious disagreement.
What families can learn from Aretha Franklin's estate
There is an interesting twist to Franklin's story:
The handwritten will ultimately worked.
A jury decided that the document found under her couch cushions was legally valid.
But it took nearly five years after her death to get that answer.
That is the real estate-planning lesson.
The goal should not simply be to leave behind a document that might eventually be accepted by a court. The goal should be to leave clear instructions so your family has as few questions as possible after you're gone.
That means keeping your estate plan organized, making sure your documents work together, updating the plan when your wishes change, and clearly replacing older documents when necessary.
Franklin's story adds one more lesson: an estate plan is not finished just because someone has started preparing it.
Attorneys had prepared a new will for Franklin before she died. Had it been properly completed and signed, her family might have had a much clearer answer about her final wishes. Instead, the unsigned document became another part of the story rather than the solution.
Aretha Franklin spent a lifetime earning respect for one of the most recognizable voices in music.
Her family should not have needed a jury to determine what her final written instructions meant.
At The Law Offices of Rodono & Haydt, APC, we help California families create and update estate plans, administer estates and trusts, and resolve disputes when families disagree about what a loved one intended.
If your estate plan is handwritten, was prepared online, has not been reviewed in years, or is still sitting unfinished somewhere in your home, it may be worth making sure it says what you actually want it to say.
Your family should not have to search the couch for answers.
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