Brentwood Estate Planning And Business Law Blog

Forbes financial writer Martin Shenkman makes a dated – though still relevant, for some – reference in a recent article on estate planning to a storied fictional family from yesteryear.

That mom, dad and two sons comprise the Cleavers, who most baby boomers will remember intimately well as perhaps THE sitcom family of the late 1950s through early 1960s. They live on eternally through television reruns.

The legal team at the Middle Tennessee law firm of Russ Cook & Associates in Brentwood routinely advises its valued and diverse clients of the broad-based benefits they can receive by executing tailored estate plans.

In fact, we note on our firm's website that, "An estate plan is essential for everyone, regardless of stage of life or economic status."

If you write and perform music, you have unique financial assets. If you are a full-time songwriter, you receive money from your songs' royalties. The copyrights you own for your songs ensure that you are paid for your music. When you plan your estate, you will want to know how to leave these rights to your children.

Estate planning can be a complex problem for anyone with high financial assets. But with songwriters, planning includes passing along the financial rights to their music. There are important factors to consider when planning how to pass your copyrights to your family.

A financial adviser recently writing an article for Forbes leads off with - and then quickly discards - the premise that trusts are relevant estate planning instruments only for families with bags of money.

Contributor Rob Clarfeld does note, of course, that trusts do routinely play a central role in safeguarding assets and promoting multigenerational wealth transfers. He stresses, though, that viewing them in that limited capacity undersells trusts' broad-based utility for planners with highly varied needs.