![]() ![]() “Death ushers in lawyers, accountants and executors, and they usually bring a cold eye for maximizing revenue.” “The mansions, yachts, luxury cars, private jets and parasitic entourages are dispensed with,” Schleimer says. As Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer Joseph Schleimer explains, death often brings a change in a star’s financial fortunes. The Forbes list, released in the fall, estimates revenue from all sources from the past 12 months before taxes and management fees. Jackson has topped Forbes’ annual dead-celebrities list for five years, bringing in $140 million this year alone. He was planning a major comeback and arena residency in London. N umerous scandals had eroded his reputation and value as a product endorser, and he faced massive debts from his lavish lifestyle and the upkeep of his Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County. When Jackson died from a drug overdose in 2009, he didn’t have much value to marketers. Now let’s examine what the King of Pop and the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll left to their heirs. Roesler says that for a complicated estate - when he’s doing licensing deals and he’s in court suing bootleggers using the artist’s image or music in ads or t-shirts - his cut can be 30 percent or more. Income tax can grab as much as 40 percent of the profits, and the IRS also takes a one-time Estate Tax payment on the estimated value of the assets at the time of death. Record labels and marketers also get a slice of the revenue stream. Īnd who gets the profits? The estate lawyers’ cut is typically 10 percent or more. Plus, the celebrity’s name and image, put on products or even back 0n stage in holographic form. It’s the songs: sold on iTunes, played in bars and used in ads. “Tangible assets – cars, bank accounts, homes and intangible assets – copyrights, trademarks the right of publicity, which is the right to your name and likeness.”įor the heirs of music stars, Roesler says, this is where the big money usually is. “They have two types of assets,” Roesler says of the typical dead celebrity. ![]() He values what’s left and figures out how to make money on it, for both the heirs and his firm. When one of these stars checks out, Roesler checks in. His client list reads like a “Who’s Who” of Hollywood’s departed: James Dean, Ella Fitzgerald, John Belushi, Telly Savalas, Bettie Page, the Andrews Sisters. He’s got offices in Indianapolis and, of course, Los Angeles. I started with the king of dead-celebrity lawyers, Mark Roesler of CMG Worldwide. Who enjoys the benefit of all this income, and does the government get any tax revenue from it?” Listener David Rigby, an actuary in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, asked: “We hear about the vast amounts made by the estates of deceased celebrities like Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. The latest entry in our “I’ve Always Wondered” series involves dead celebrities, mythic mansions and legendary kings: the King of Pop and the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. ![]()
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