Four properties owned by Aretha Franklin at the time of her death have been awarded to her four sons after a will she wrote in 2014 was found in her couch cushions.
According to Fox News, a jury determined Frankin’s 2014 will superseded a 2010 handwritten will that was found in a locked cabinet. A judge then assigned Franklin’s real estate to her sons, citing that she was respecting the wishes of the 2014 will.
The move comes after Franklin died of pancreatic cancer in 2018 without a formal will. Franklin’s niece, Sabrina Owens, found the couch will while looking for documents in her aunt’s home in Detroit.
The discovery of the second will led to a dispute among Franklin’s sons over how their mother wished to divide her assets.
In both the 2010 and 2014 wills, Franklin said all four sons would share income from her music and copyrights. However, Franklin’s son, Kecalf Franklin, was named executor in the 2014 version while a different sibling, Edward Franklin, was executor in the 2010 version.
Under the 2014 will, Kecalf will get the property where the wills were found, which was valued at 1.1 million in 2018. Edward will receive another property from the 2014 will, and Franklin’s son Ted White II will be given a property sold by her estate for $300,000.
A fourth property valued at over $1 million is set to be sold and the profits will be divided among her four sons including Clarence Franklin, who lives in an assisted living center.
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