Thinking ahead about your wishes for artworks: estate planning for artists

This content was developed in collaboration with the Art360 Foundation, which has since concluded its operations. Read a blog post documenting the Foundation’s work and legacy.

Introduction to estate planning with artworks

Detailing what you would like to happen to your artworks within your estate is an essential process for all artists. Consider whether, if you passed away suddenly or became incapacitated, would the people close to you have known what to do with your artwork, your equipment, your studio? Thinking about what you want and planning ahead for your estate will make your preferences clear.

When should I start?

You don’t need to be at the end of your career or at the peak of your earning potential to start thinking about this topic.

It’s more about making sure that what happens to your artwork in the future is what you would want. So, really the best time to get started is now.

Why should I do this so soon?

Any planning you do now will make it simpler, smoother and more affordable for your executor – the person or people you appoint to carry out the instructions you give in your Will. This means more of your funds will be available, sooner, for your beneficiaries – and to support your plans.

Who needs to be involved?

Your planning may involve discussions with:

• people close to you
• people you chose as your executors
• an independent legal advisor
• asset appraisers and valuers
• any art professionals you intend to mention in your wishes

It’s up to you who you talk to at this stage, but we recommend getting your own legal advice, so that you can discuss and be advised on your particular circumstances.

What is estate planning?

Estate planning is a way to legally protect, define, and distribute your assets when you die. Your Will will need to clearly show your wishes and how you want your assets to be handled. Thinking ahead helps you shape your decisions thoroughly.

But remember, your forward planning is not formally recognised until you legally secure your wishes.

Legally securing your wishes

An ‘estate’ is the legal term for all the assets belonging to a person when they die. Assets can be physical, for example an artwork or studio, financial, such as cash, bonds and shares, or abstract, like legal rights, for example your intellectual property.

Your wishes for what happens to these assets are expressed through documents which make your decisions legally binding and secure, including some or all of the following:

• Will
• Trusts
• Power of attorney
• Living Will

What to include when planning ahead

Include a list of your assets, which includes your artworks – those you physically own plus those you hold copyright to, and what you want to happen to them. It’s a good idea to start listing your assets wherever you are in your life or career, in preparation for when you make your formal and legally-binding Will, and adding to them as they build. 

Your artworks should be catalogued and documented.

Detailing what you want to happen

Your wishes may range from a certain person receiving a particular item, to funding an art scholarship, to preserving your studio and opening it to the public. 

The more detail you can include, the easier it will be for your heirs and beneficiaries in what will be an emotional time for them. To avoid ambiguity it’s very important to include specifics, such as giving a person’s full name and date of birth, or stating a guardian for a child’s trust fund.

Cataloguing your artworks

In terms of artworks by you, if you don’t already have one you should build a catalogue stating:

• date you completed each painting
• where you lived at the time of painting
• if you sold the copyright, if so to whom
• if you created the work with one or more other artists – if so who with, plus the proportion you each contributed
• if the work was sold, if so to whom
• if unsold work is lent, donated, on exhibition or on consignment
• artworks which are unfinished

Include works that are in museums, collections and galleries. Keep on file any agreements you have relating to your artworks. It’s also advisable to write your name clearly on the back of any artwork you create.

You might find it useful to read our advice articles on visual arts copyright and disputes over copyright ownership, which include information relating to co-created and commissioned work.

Unfinished works

You might die with one or more artworks that are still in progress. Think about whether you would be happy for unfinished work to be displayed after you die, and specify this in the wishes you have for your artworks, that you include in an Appendix to your Will.

Apply the same thinking to artwork you might consider of lesser quality than others or from early stages of your career – what do you want to happen to it? You may still have possession of or copyright to artworks you created in the past  which have sentimental or educational value, but you do not consider appropriate for display. For example, you gave a family member an early work, but would not like it ever to be exhibited.

There may be pieces you never want sold or displayed, but may have some archival value. Read our advice on Preserving an artist’s legacy in the DACS Preserving an artist’s legacy article.

Artwork by other artists

You should also list and identify artworks you own which are not by you, so that there is no confusion. 

Values

Your estate planning will likely include values for all of your assets. You may wish at this point to commission an art appraiser to value the artworks you own, those by yourself and by others. 

It’s also worth talking to those close to you, as they may have sentimental attachments to particular pieces, which are part of their value too.

Art conservator

You could include the name or names of who you’d like to appoint as your ‘art conservator’. This is the person who will be responsible for specific instructions relating to your artwork assets, such as your: 

• artworks
• studio
• copyright owned by you
• other intellectual property rights relating to your ‘body of work’, which is all the artworks you produced in your lifetime

Care and storage

You may need to maintain a storage facility for your artworks, and this will need to be included in your Will. This could simply be extra rent on your studio.

Your plan may need to include required conservation, framing, photography, packing, shipping, and insurance to transport works.

You may wish to leave funds in a compensation arrangement to people who will care for your work in the future or who will oversee its transition. This might be your assistant, art conservator, a friend or family member, or someone else.

Find out more

For further artist-specific considerations for estate planning, read the Estate Planning Workbook for Visual Artists from the Joan Mitchell Foundation (PDF). Keep in mind it is an American publication and reflects US law, not UK law.

Related articles

• Preserving an artist's legacy
• Copyright after you die
• Artist's Resale Right (ARR) after you die