- A Michigan jury ruled in July that a document written by Aretha Franklin before her death was a valid will.
- She is one of many famous people to die without a will, including Billie Holiday and Kurt Cobain.
- Without a will, celebrity estates are often subject to litigation, which can take years to resolve.
In 1984, a lawyer named William D. Zabel, who had been writing wills for 20 years, argued that people often refuse to write wills because they are not ready to “resolve their true feelings” about death and estate. , he wrote in the New York Times. , and family.
“Refusing to make a will, or refusing to sign a will after it has been made, is often a refusal of a human being to face the fear of death,” he wrote.
In the United States, a will is not required to be drafted or typed by an attorney, but these elements can help your will be valid in court. A person can usually make a valid will if their intentions are written down, they clearly want the document to be a will, and they are deemed mentally competent at the time of making it. Technical requirements vary by state, but in many cases you will also need two witnesses to sign the will.
An investigation conducted by The Conversation from 2014 to 2016 found that estate disputes where a will was not executed typically cost about $17,000 in legal fees. In the case of celebrity estates, the cost of a failed will can be even higher.
Here are 12 examples of celebrities dying without a will and what happened next.
