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Aretha Franklinleft behind a fortune — but not a lot of guidance about how to divvy it up.
The Queen of Soul did not write a will before shedied of pancreatic cancerat age 76,the Associated Press confirmed. Franklin’s net worth isestimated to be around $80 million, according tocelebritynetworth.com.
Wilson continued, “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.”
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Franklin’s lawyer David J. Bennett filed papers in Michigan’s Oakland County court that confirmed that she was unwed and had four sons (Clarence Franklin, Edward Franklin, Kecalf Franklin and Ted White Jr.) between the ages of 48 and 63 at the time of her death, according to the AP. Franklin’s niece is acting as the executor.
Michigan law dictates that her sons will split her estate equally.
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After Franklin’s death, Kenneth Silver, a shareholder at Hertz Schram law firm in Michigan who was not involved in Franklin’s estate,speculated to PEOPLEabout the future of Franklin’s earnings.
Silver said that Franklin most likely left behind a number of assets. “I would expect that she has a house, probably a financial account of some kind — a brokerage account, stocks, bond, cash,” he said. “She probably has investments of a wide variety — perhaps in real estate ventures, other businesses that she may own or have an interest in.”
He continued, “[She may have] copyrights to her songs, perhaps publishing rights to her material, perhaps the material of other artists. And I’m sure she has probably a pretty valuable collection of personal property, things like Grammys, gold records, memorabilia from Motown years and onward.”
Franklin indeed had at least $2 million in property around Detroit and had ownership of the songs she wrote, the AP reported.
“I would imagine she probably felt she was entitled to more, but probably received more than a lot of artists from the time, especially African-American artists,” Wilson told the outlet.
Silver commented that the public might see some of the decision-making about Franklin’s estate unfold. “It is the objective of the survivors of any deceased, whether it be Aretha Franklin or John Smith, to handle affairs as simply and quickly as you can,” he said. “Sometimes you just can’t do that … In my experience, the larger the estate, the more public the figure, the greater the likelihood that there is going to be an issue.”
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At Franklin’sstar-studded funeralon Friday, Franklin’s friend Ron Moten offered some tips to her children to help them navigate the next few years.
“Remember your family and friends that have been with you for years,” Moten said, according to the AP. “Because you are about to meet a lot of people who will now want to be your new best friend. You will also meet some people that will have the best investments in the world for you. My advice? Go slow, be careful and be smart.”
source: people.com
