Houston Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorney Blog
Austin artists build value through originals, prints, merchandise, and a reputation that lives online. When an artist dies or becomes disabled, confusion over consignment contracts, online shops, and intellectual property can freeze income and scatter the archive. A focused estate plan protects your work, pays your bills, and guides your heirs so the art keeps moving into the world.
Inventory The Work And The Rights
Begin with a simple spreadsheet that lists each original, series, or edition. Add title, medium, dimensions, date, current location, and whether the piece is consigned or sold. For limited editions, record edition size and numbers already sold. Note where high-resolution files live and who has access. This one document becomes the map your executor and gallerist use to keep sales going without guessing.
Treat Consignment Agreements Like Business Assets
Galleries usually hold works on consignment, splitting sale proceeds. File every consignment contract and check payment terms, insurance coverage, and how long a piece may stay before pickup. If a gallery goes bankrupt, consigned art can be at risk unless your paperwork is clear. Keep signed agreements and delivery receipts so your executor can reclaim inventory quickly. Add a standing instruction for the gallery to pay your trust or estate account after you die so cash does not sit in limbo.
Protect Your Brand, From Certificates To Social Media
Your signature matters. Create a template for certificates of authenticity and sign a stack now for prints you expect to sell. Give your executor rights and passwords to your website, Shopify, Etsy, and social platforms. State whether the brand should continue selling prints and merchandise, license images to publishers, or close the shop. If you want a specific collaborator to run posthumous releases, authorize that role in your documents.
Choose A Tech-Savvy Executor Or Add A Business Manager
Not every executor understands art shipping, color profiles, or edition control. Consider naming a co-executor or trustee with gallery experience, or appoint a business manager who operates under your executor. Spell out tasks: collect inventory from galleries, manage online store orders, renew domains, handle packaging vendors, and keep the email list active. When roles are clear, your estate avoids stalled orders and chargebacks.
Use A Trust For Inventory And Income
A revocable living trust can hold originals, digital files, and store revenue. Your successor trustee pays vendors, ships orders, and distributes net income to your beneficiaries. Pair the trust with a short operations manual: print vendors, paper stock, framing specs, margins for wholesale, and discount rules for friends and collectors. With those instructions, your studio does not shut down while lawyers trade letters.
Price, Appraise, And Insure Wisely
Price lists should reflect recent sales, not guesses. Update them quarterly and keep past versions for appraisers. Photograph each piece and store images with filenames that match inventory IDs. Insure your studio, works in transit, and high-value pieces on loan. If a flood or theft hits, your executor needs a current inventory and policy numbers to make you whole.
Handle Copyright And Posthumous Releases
Copyright lasts for your life plus seventy years. Your will or trust should assign those rights and appoint someone to approve licensed uses. State whether the estate may create posthumous editions from digital files or casts. If your values demand no new editions, say so; if you want limited memorial editions for a charity, give rules. Clear guardrails protect your legacy from both neglect and exploitation.
Plan For Taxes And Cash Flow
Art can be illiquid. Keep a small reserve fund inside your trust to pay rent, storage, and shipping for a few months. Separate merchandise revenue, which turns faster, from high-value originals that may take time to sell. Your fiduciary can use prints and licensed images to keep income steady while working on private-sale placements for major pieces.
Communicate With Your Circle
Share your plan with your gallery, studio assistant, and a trusted collector or mentor. Give them permission to advise your executor. A short letter that names your studio contact list and shipping workflow can save weeks of confusion.
Your art deserves care long after you stop creating it. For an Austin-smart plan that coordinates consignment, online sales, and copyrights, call McCulloch & Miller, PLLC at (713) 936-9073 and build a studio-ready estate plan that protects both your work and your loved ones.