Net Worth Ranker
What Is Aretha Franklin’s Net Worth?
At the time of her death in 2018, Aretha Franklin’s net worth was estimated to be $10 million. However, this figure did not encompass the full scope of her intellectual property, the value of her likeness, her extensive music catalog, and the substantial royalty streams generated by her work. Court documents submitted during the legal disputes over her estate revealed that her royalty income alone amounted to $3-4 million per year in the years following her passing.
Taking into account the potential value of her music catalog and ongoing royalty income, some estimates placed her actual net worth at the time of death closer to $50-80 million. Despite these estimations, legal documents assessing her overall assets valued them at $4.1 million. This valuation included cash holdings, real estate properties, and a nominal $1 million valuation assigned to her intellectual property.
Aretha Franklin’s Career and Financial Success
Known as the “Queen of Soul,” Aretha Franklin achieved phenomenal success throughout her career, selling over 75 million albums worldwide. This impressive figure placed her among the top 50 best-selling musical artists of all time, and within the top 25 when excluding bands and group acts. Her enduring influence and musical legacy led Rolling Stone to rank her as the #1 greatest singer of all time, surpassing iconic figures such as Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and Bob Dylan. The magazine hailed her voice as a “gift from God.”
Aretha Franklin’s career began in the 1960s with Columbia Records, where she gained moderate success. However, her career trajectory experienced a seismic shift in 1967 when she signed with Atlantic Records. It was during this time that she released the groundbreaking single “Respect,” which became a defining anthem for the civil rights and women’s rights movements. With hits like “Chain of Fools,” “Think,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” and “A Natural Woman,” she accumulated 18 Grammy Awards, including the first eight awards ever given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Charting 112 singles, 17 of which reached the top 10, she secured 21 #1 tracks on the R&B chart, cementing her status as the most-charted woman in Billboard history.
In addition to her numerous Grammy Awards, Aretha Franklin performed “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” at Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony. She also held the record for most Hot 100 songs of any female artist with 73, first hitting the top spot on June 18, 1977, with “Break It to Me Gently,” which gave her 54th appearance on the Hot 100 chart, surpassing Connie Francis’ 53 career appearances. However, Nicki Minaj broke her record in May 2017, reaching 76. Notably, while Franklin was the sole credited artist on all 73 of her songs to make the Hot 100 charts, Minaj was merely a featured artist on 44 of them.
Details of Aretha Franklin’s Estate and Assets
Upon her death, it was reported that Aretha Franklin did not have a formal, typewritten will. In 2010, she signed a document that purportedly named her son Ted as the executor of her will. However, in 2019, a year after her death, a handwritten document, supposedly from 2014, emerged, crossing out Ted’s name and naming her son Kecalf as the executor. This document was reportedly found stuffed in a couch. The ensuing legal battle continued until it went to trial in July 2023.
Documents submitted by lawyers representing the estate over the years revealed that, at the time of her death, Aretha Franklin’s overall assets were valued at $4.1 million. This figure included a $1 million valuation for intellectual property but did not include an overall value of her royalty stream and catalog. The documents also indicated that she owed the IRS between $5 and $8 million, including $6.3 million in back taxes and $1.5 million in penalties.
David Bennett, an attorney for the Franklin Estate, stated that they were disputing the IRS’s claims and that the vast majority of her debts to the government had been paid off by the singer before her death. He also mentioned that the Estate was diligently working to resolve any remaining issues. Aretha Franklin also owned a large portfolio of property, stocks, and other assets. She had over $1 million worth of uncashed checks. Court documents revealed that she had $988,656.17 in uncashed checks in her possession when she died. Two checks totaled $702,711.90 from Sound Exchange and the Screen Writers Guild. The remaining $285,944.27 came from her publishing company Springtime Publishing, EMI, BMI, Carlin Music, and Feel Good Films. In May 2019, her lawyers moved to liquidate these assets.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Aretha Louise Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 25, 1942, at the family home located at 406 Lucy Avenue. Her mother, Barbara (née Siggers), was a vocalist and piano player, and her father, Clarence LaVaughn “C. L.” Franklin, was a Baptist minister and circuit preacher. The family later moved to Buffalo, New York, before settling in Detroit, Michigan, where her father became the pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church.
Her parents separated in 1948, and her mother passed away in 1952, leaving Aretha and her siblings to be raised by several women in the community, including their grandmother. Franklin attended Northern High School in Detroit but dropped out during her sophomore year. She began singing at an early age in her father’s church, and he began managing her when she was twelve years old. He would take her on his “gospel caravan” tours, where she would sing in various churches on the road, and he also helped her land her first recording deal with J.V.B. Records. Her first single with J.V.B. Records, “Never Grow Old,” was released in 1956, followed by several singles that same year along with the album “Spirituals” (1956). She also toured with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when she was sixteen years old, and she later sang at his funeral in 1968.
When she turned eighteen, Franklin decided to pursue a pop music career. Her father helped her move to New York and also helped her produce the demo that would land her a record deal with Columbia Records, who signed her in 1960. Her first record with Columbia, the single “Today I Sing the Blues,” was released in September 1960 and eventually made it into the Top 10 of the Hot Rhythm & Blues Sellers charts. Franklin released her first secular album, “Aretha: With the Ray Bryant Combo,” in January 1961. The single “Won’t Be Long” off the album was her first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. She went on to release several more albums with Columbia but struggled with achieving real commercial success while at the label. After her contract expired, she moved to Atlantic Records in November 1966. Her first single with Atlantic, “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” was a huge hit and peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her first top-ten pop single.
Later Career Achievements and Accolades
Today, Aretha Franklin is best known for her hits “Respect,” “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman,” “Chain of Fools,” “Ain’t No Way,” “Think,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and “I Say a Little Prayer,” among others. She was the first female inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Franklin received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1979, and in 1994, she received a medal from the Kennedy Center Honors. She has received 18 Grammy Awards in multiple musical genres, as well as two Honorary Grammys. Many of her songs have reached the “Top 40” on the Billboard charts. Twenty of her songs have gone to #1 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart. She is also one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, having sold 75 million records globally.
Personal Life Details
Aretha Franklin was the mother of four children. Her first two children, Clarence Franklin and Edward Derone Franklin, were born when she was thirteen and fifteen years old, respectively. They were raised by her grandmother and sister Erma, and Franklin would visit them often in Michigan. Her third child, Ted White Jr., was born in 1964 to Franklin and her husband at the time, Theodore “Ted” White. Her youngest child, Kecalf Cunningham, was born in 1970 to Franklin and her road manager Ken Cunningham.
Franklin was married twice during her lifetime. She married her first husband, Ted White, in 1961. They separated in 1968 and finalized their divorce in 1969. Her second husband was actor Glynn Turman. They married in 1978, before separating in 1982 and divorcing in 1984. In 2012, she became engaged to her longtime partner Willie Wilkerson, but she later called off the engagement.
