Intellectual Property Belongs in Your Estate Plan, Especially If It Pays You

---

Summary:

Intellectual property—like copyrights, trademarks, and patents—can generate income for decades after death. To protect that income, IP must be clearly listed, valued, and assigned to specific beneficiaries. Trusts can help manage licensing, enforce rights, and ensure residual payments flow smoothly. Without this planning, valuable assets risk going unclaimed or mismanaged.

---

You created something. Maybe it’s a book that lives on library shelves across the country. Maybe it’s a song people still stream every day. A logo, a formula, a product. It came from your head and hands, and it doesn’t disappear just because you’re gone.

If your work has value while you’re alive, it likely has value after. Intellectual property (IP) is more than legal jargon. It’s one of the most overlooked pieces of generational wealth. When protected and passed down with intention, it can keep earning for decades. But if left out of an estate plan, it can vanish into red tape, unpaid licensing, or worse: go to someone who doesn’t know what to do with it.

Here’s how to make sure that doesn’t happen.

List Every Piece of IP and Put a Value on It

If you’ve ever written, recorded, designed, built, branded, or invented something, you likely own intellectual property. Copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets all qualify. Some assets might be active now; others could pay off later.

Start by cataloging your IP. List everything with potential value, even if it’s not bringing in money today. Include published work, software, brand marks, designs, and confidential business processes. Then, get a fair valuation. It helps to understand what each asset could realistically earn and who’s likely to pay for it.

Be Specific About Who Gets What

IP doesn’t divide itself. Without clear instructions, residual payments can freeze. Or worse, they could default to next-of-kin rules and go to someone you never intended.

Decide who inherits each IP asset or the income it generates. It’s not always the same. You can give someone ownership of a copyright while giving someone else the right to collect the royalties. Be clear, because vague instructions cause delays, disputes, and lost income.

Use a Trust to Keep Payments Flowing

Trusts don’t just hold money. They can hold copyrights, trademarks, patents, and other IP. This is how you make sure licensing, renewals, and residuals stay on track.

When you put IP into a trust, you get to appoint a trustee. That person (or entity) is responsible for handling licensing deals, collecting royalties, and enforcing your rights. They don’t have to be a lawyer, but they do need to understand the business of your work.

Appoint the Right Person to Manage Licensing

Managing IP isn’t a passive job. Someone needs to review contracts, renew registrations, and handle negotiations. Copyrights can last 70 years after death. Trademarks can last forever with proper renewal. But none of that matters if no one’s keeping track of the calendar. Without clear instruction, that responsibility can fall to someone with no clue how it works, or worse, no interest in doing it.

Include specific management directions in your estate plan. Say what should happen with the IP. Should it be licensed out? Archived? Sold? Should the branding stay intact or evolve?

Include renewal schedules in your estate documentation. Or better yet, assign the responsibility directly to someone who will actually do it. IP can be lucrative, but only if someone’s minding the shop.

Create a Legacy That Pays

Residuals aren’t “bonus” money. For many artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs, they’re the whole point. IP can generate real, ongoing income long after your name fades from headlines, but only if your estate is built to collect and manage those payments.

If you have IP, you need an estate plan built for more than bank accounts. LT Fobi Law, LLC helps Atlanta families protect creative and intellectual work, so it keeps providing for the next generation. Call 470-461-7703 to start building a plan that respects your work and rewards your heirs.