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Robert Craig portrait
© Finers Stephens Innocent 2009.
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Following law firm Finers Stephens Innocent's (FSI) Wills Surgery for DACS artists back in February, Robert Craig, Partner at FSI, tells us why every creative person should have a well thought-out and well-drafted Will.
If you die without a Will, all your estate is governed by the intestacy rules. The distribution of your estate between your spouse, children, siblings and parents will certainly not be what you would have devised for yourself if you had written a Will, and provides no clear mechanism for
exploiting your creative work. Instead you would certainly create a great deal more work and worry for your family. As well as your house, your car and your second best bed the estate of a creative person may contain four special elements, namely:
Creative Chattels
By this I mean the physical products of your creative mind, including paintings, drawings, prints, writings, digital images, work in progress, models, maquettes, and all the other
things which represent your creative work, some of which may be uncompleted, or out with agents, or squirreled away in your studio or attic. These items may need to be collected, catalogued, exploited or sold. They have to be distributed or exploited in a practical way in accordance with
your wishes. It mustn't be a free-for-all or a dogfight.
Rights
Your intellectual property rights will continue for up to 70 years from your death, and the proper exploitation of these will involve knowing what the rights are, and marketing them sensibly. There may be opportunities for printing new editions of artwork, or licensing its use in various forms, and decisions will need to be taken about which publisher should be used and what deals should be done. If rights are split among quarrelling members of the family it may prove impossible to exploit them. The sales of artwork and the exploitation of rights will give rise both to capital and income receipts which will need to be collected and administered over many years, both in this country and abroad. Agents' and publishers' statements will need to be checked, and proper arrangements have to be set up for distribution of funds between your chosen beneficiaries. While this may be a simple matter if you have left your entire estate to one person, bear in mind that the revenue from rights may come in over many years. It could outlive your beneficiary and pass to their own heirs, which again makes it necessary to have a well thought-out system for the administration of your estate.
Reputation
As a creative person, even a modest one, you probably have concerns about your enduring reputation. At the top end, you may be of sufficient celebrity to warrant an authorised biography, celebrations on the centenary of your birth, or the establishment of a charitable foundation to perpetuate your name and work. Or you may simply want to ensure that your work enjoys good sales, and that your studio contents are fed out to the market in a sensible way
rather than by a fire-sale which depresses the price of your work for the next 25 years. Having a well thought-out plan for your estate is critical in this area also.
You will certainly save your family a great deal of future trouble if you get some professional help to prepare a Will which covers these problems, and appoints appropriate executors and trustees, and gives them the powers they need to administer your estate for the benefit of your
chosen beneficiaries.
Robert Craig
is a partner at Finers Stephens Innocent. He specialises in the preparation of Wills for creative people and the administration of their estates.
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DACS has a limited number of 'Make a Will? Who Me?' booklets by FSI to give away! To request your copy contact us on:
T 020 7553 9064
E editor@dacs.org.uk
Alternatively you can download a copy direct from www.fsilaw.com
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