Last week we started our examination of trusts in the author estate plan with a discussion of the four steps for selecting the right trustee. Today we’ll take a look at how to divide your copyrights and other intellectual property within the trust itself. Dividing your copyrights among your heirs essentially boils down to two different – but equally important – questions: Who you want to benefit from the copyrights after your death? and Who do you want in charge of managing the copyrights after you’re gone? Many authors consider question #1, but fewer pay attention to #2 – even
Read moreestate planning
Who Can an Author Trust? (Trusts in Author Estate Planning, Part 1)
Today we continue the ongoing series on author estate planning with a look at how to pass copyrights by means of a trust. The language we look at here applies only to revocable trusts, meaning trusts established by a living person or persons (the “settlor” – in our case, an author and/or the author and his or her spouse) which can be canceled or modified during the settlor’s lifetime. Irrevocable trusts operate under entirely different rules, and are not generally appropriate for standard estate planning purposes. In most cases, a person (or married couple) establishes a trust in order to
Read more