Estate Planning for Literary Works
Estate planning for owners of intellectual property such as literary works has always been challenging. Copyright laws are complex. Maximizing financial returns from the property is heavily dependent on proper “marketing.”
History abounds with high profile court battles that are fought long after the death of the creator of the intellectual property. One such case, which is described in the enclosed article by Robert L. Moshman in the Wealth Strategies Journal, involves the works of the author Franz Kafka. His works were most recently fought over in an Israeli court earlier this year. He died in 1924. As stated in the article “everyone associated with Kafka ignored his requests.” He undoubtedly has rolled over in his grave several times.
Intellectual property rights can create significant estate tax problems. In my experience, the estate tax problems are secondary to proper management of the property rights following the creator’s death. At a minimum, proper planning requires knowledge of estate planning and intellectual property laws, an industry expert, and a sophisticated executor. The article mentions the idea of a literary executor, who would typically be an industry expert. Using a literary executor is a good idea, though it failed miserably for Edgar Allen Poe due to his poor selection of the literary executor.
