do you have a will? is your literary legacy protected?

[Anne Frasier]

i just read an article in RWR about wills and a writer's need to appoint a literary executor. this is like math to me, which means i understand nothing. i do know i need to get a new will drawn up even though very little will change and my estate will be still be divided equally between my two kids. i always figured if i croak they'll just continue to work with my literary agent. but do i need that in writing? do i need to establish them as literary executors when they are splitting my estate? it seems to me they would be left in charge of my books/copyrights/manuscripts anyway.

[Joy Calderwood]

I was just thinking about that today. One of our British authors is in poor health. We would either keep paying into his account or hold the funds for his estate, but what's the technically right thing to do?

[Anne Frasier]

joy, i'm assuming the author has no power of attorney. or maybe he does, but currently you have no way of knowing the who/what/details. i know nothing about such things, but i would think that as long as the author is still alive you would continue to pay into the account. hopefully someone will have an answer to your question!

[Naomi Hirahara]

Although we're not that old, my husband and I did a living trust and I did leave the copyrights/intellectual property rights to someone in the family.