Like Prince, Aretha Franklin Died Without a Will. Why You Should Have One

The tax and financial hassle of probate or intestacy can be huge, even for normal sized estates. When you add the extra zeros that go with a successful entertainer, the failures can seem much more agonizing. It is surprising the number of celebrities that had passed away in recent years without wills or with insufficient estate planning, including Prince, Heath Ledger, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and most recently, Aretha Franklin. Due to deficient planning, each of these sizable estates were hit with legal or financial issues that could have been easily avoided.

Franklin had been ill, so writing a will would have been logical. But also a will allows assets to become public knowledge, and many people – not just celebrities – can be uncomfortable with this prospect. For very little money you can create a revocable trust that calls for the disposition of your assets in a manner in which you choose. You still write a will, but the will just says that everything you own goes via the revocable trust, and your assets remain out of the public eye.

See Robert W. Wood, Like Prince, Aretha Franklin Died Without a Will. Why You Should Have One, Forbes, August 23, 2018.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.) for bringing this article to my attention.