When the legend Aretha Franklin died in 2018 at the age of 76, she left behind four sons, an extraordinary musical legacy, an estate worth millions, and no formal plan for what to do with it.
As many may recall, two handwritten wills surfaced months later in her Michigan home, including one found tucked inside a notebook beneath her living room couch cushions, per the Washington Post. The competing documents sent her sons into a years-long legal battle over the iconic singerâs final wishes, culminating in a 2023 jury trial that, according to the Associated Press, declared the will found in the couch valid.
If it could happen to the Queen of Soul, it could certainly happen to you. Or at least thatâs what Jehan Crump-Gibson, a Michigan-based estate-planning attorney, hopes more families realize.
âAretha Franklinâs estate, it didnât go through a special process just because it was Arethaâs,â Crump-Gibson told theGrio over Zoom on Monday, just a day after National Estate Planning Week wrapped. âEverybodyâs estate has to go through that same process.â
The attorney noted that weâre talking about ordinary families without thousands upon thousands of dollars lying around for legal battles or fame and notoriety on their side. And unfortunately, she sees it every day.
As co-founder and managing partner of Great Lakes Legal Group and author of âA Matter of Life and Death,â Crump-Gibson has spent nearly two decades untangling contested wills, inherited properties, and family disputes in probate court, many of which could have been avoided.
âWe all hope to live and to be 100, or to be more in our right minds [when we get older], but we understand that that may not happen,â she explained, adding, âSo we need to plan accordingly.â
The attorney is opening up at a time when Americans are preparing for what experts have deemed the largest transfer of generational wealth in historyâand many Black families stand poised to be left even further behind. According to a 2025 survey by Caring.com, 62% of Black respondents reported having no estate-planning documents, up from 55.2% the year before. Just 16% reported having a will, compared to 28% of white respondents. Without a clear plan in place, everything from a family home to other hard-earned assets can become embroiled in legal proceedings, leaving generations of Black wealth vulnerable.
And as Crump-Gibson, who calls herself a âlegacy architect,â has learned, much of the trouble begins with people who simply âdonât know what they donât know.â She gave the familiar example of a grandmother who leaves behind a house. She lived there for decades, raised all of her children there, and maybe also always said she wanted the property to stay in the family. Except, when she dies, and someone finally goes looking for the deed, they discover the house is still in Great-Grandmaâs name or someone elseâs, who has been long dead and gone.
The author has encountered these very situations, including families who discover probate proceedings were opened decades earlier but never resolved. Others assume that being the oldest child, the relative who cared for the deceased, or even being the one currently living in the property automatically gives them authority over the property, only to learn otherwise.
Then there are the bills. Things like property taxes piling up, insurance coverage lapsing, and outstanding mortgages can all leave families scrambling to keep the family home. And this is all before we even get to disputes about who gets what.
In addition to complex paperwork and logistics causing epic family fights, thereâs also sometimes what grandma and ânem may have said when they were alive. She may have said she always wanted the house to stay in the family, or even gone so far as to promise someone it would be theirs somewhere down the line. One aunt thinks itâs theirs because of a late-night chat no one else was privy to. Another relative recalls being told something else entirely.
Without writing it down and formally outlining it within an estate plan, Crump-Gibson said, âWishes are just that, wishes.â
âTheyâre not a mandate,â the attorney continued. âAnd what will happen is state law will say what happens to your property.â
Itâs also not enough to just write them down by hand, no matter how much Hollywood has romanticized the written will. Contrary to popular belief, a will doesnât actually automatically spare families probate court, and handwritten documents can face tremendous legal challenges, as Franklinâs family learned firsthand.
Itâs why Crump-Gibson urges families to consult qualified estate-planning attorneys rather than relying on advice circulating online. And while many assume estate planning is reserved for the extremely wealthy, the extremely elderly, or homeowners at the very least, sheâs seen what can happen when younger adults put it off, too.
In her book, she loosely bases a story on a case involving a 22-year-old mother who died leaving behind a four-year-old daughter and a life insurance policy with a $1 million death benefit. While the young woman had secured the policy, she hadnât fully completed her estate planning, so her relatives had to navigate probate court before finally establishing a trust for her child.
âYou donât wait until the first kid. You donât wait until you feel like youâve arrived. You donât wait until you buy the home,â Crump-Gibson urged, adding, âYou plan for now. And then, as things change, you can always update the plan.â
Of course, this is all easier said than done when it comes to inspiring our parents and grandparents. Getting relatives to talk about their own mortality and their plans can be, well, awkward. With Thanksgiving approaching and many of us returning to the very homes we may be wondering about, it may not be a bad time to broach the topic. For anyone who is going to attempt to, Crump-Gibson suggests doing it delicately, of course.
The conversation will probably go a lot further if you approach it from a position of empowering them to use their autonomy to set their wishes in stone so theyâre truly respected rather than just, âAm I getting the house when you die? Have you decided?â It should be showing them this is a way to ensure they remain in the driver seat even long after theyâre gone.
âMake sure youâre leading with love,â she advised.
âItâs really just making sure they have peace of mind for whatever it is that they want to happen, to ensure that it will happen,â she continued. âI think we take for granted itâs not easy aging and facing your own mortality. And the older you get, the more folks have to come to grips with that, and the fact that they may not be able to continue to manage things themselves, and thatâs a hard pill to swallow.â
However, the estate-planning attorney, who partly wrote her book as a tool to help families avoid these scenarios, said enduring the discomfort and pushing through the process with a professional will leave you with the peace of mind you deserve.
âAnd once youâve done the work, weâre done,â she said. âYou can put this stuff aside. You can have the peace of mind and ride off into the sunset.â
