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As estate planning professionals, we see many clients with poorly drafted documents and poorly conceived estate plans. Sometimes the errors made are based on mistakes of fact and sometimes they [...]

Mistakes are often made in estate plans. Unfortunately, the consequences can be devastating. Celebrities are not immune and can be just as guilty of inattention and poor planning as regular [...]

Whitney Houston performing "Greatest Love of All" during the HBO-televised concert "Welcome Home Heroes with Whitney Houston" honoring the troops who took part in Operation Desert Storm, their families, and [...]

Many people idolize celebrities and often consider them to be role models. Result: It is not clear whether the 25-year restriction on the use of his publicity rights would have reduced the estate tax value of such rights if the valuation were ever challenged by the IRS. Publicity rights can be assigned, licensed, and inherited in some jurisdictions, including California, which affords celebrities postmortem publicity rights that last until 70 years after death. The 25-year restriction was not the maximum 70 years under California's publicity rights statute, but perhaps Williams was trying to strike a balance between the concern that his image would be misused after his death and the benefit that his postmortem publicity rights would eventually bring to his charitable foundation. [Extracted from the article]