Leaving The Building: The Lucrative Afterlife of Musical Estates, Forde - B, Inc.

              There are hundreds of artists and estates mentioned in this book, but the story is dominated by the person whose estate has been prospering for longer than he was alive - Elvis. "It [Elvis' estate] has birthed what we can consider to be the industrialization of estate management and many others have taken what it has achieved and run with it." The King left all of his assets in trust for his daughter with his dad as executor. Col. Parker convinced Vernon to extend his management and his 50% cut. This, notwithstanding the fact that four years earlier Parker had sold the royalties for all of Elvis' work to RCA for $5.4M. Priscilla took over when Vernon died in 1979, and the Tennessee probate court vitiated Parker's deal and dismissed him. Priscilla built a highly professional team with the goal of building value, as Elvis' profligacy had left his affairs in an appalling state. First up, and the cornerstone of the estate's success, was opening Graceland to the public, and four decades later it still attracts 500,000 visitors per year. 

             The key to a peaceful and prosperous financial afterlife is proper estate planning, and needless to say, most musicians do not attend to that responsibility.  From those dying young like Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, to those living long into adulthood - Aretha Franklin, John Denver and Prince - the lack of planning leads to never ending uncertainty. Those set forth as having excellent estate plans were Frank Sinatra, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie.

            Another challenge in this arena is who's who?  Many stars had multiple wives, children acknowledged and unknown. The poster child on this topic is James Brown. Fifteen years after his death, the irrevocable trust set up to help poor kids in South Carolina hadn't paid out a penny, while his fourth wife whose marriage may or may not have been valid, battled his kids. Only lawyers were doing well. And on the topic of lawyers doing well, the bank that was appointed executor of Prince's estate pulls down $125,000 per month, and dozens of lawyers are feasting. The estate of Jimi Hendrix, who died young without children or a spouse was still a battleground amongst various relatives almost half-a-century after Jimi stopped jamming.

           This topic is one I've always been fascinated by, thus making my inability to complete it quite disappointing. By definition, something like this will cast its stories far and wide, but as I have said many times here, I cannot follow books with disjointed narratives. An explanation of the different rights and a legal parsing of the components of music creation, as well as the length of royalty rights here and in the UK, probably would've helped.