Tony Hart, Wendy Richards and Geoffrey Smith, well known tv personalities who have been on our screens since the 60's and 70's, have all recently sadly passed on.
 
They do, however, leave behind them not only a certain affection in the hearts of British tv viewers but a future stream of royalty income over which their legal estates will have the rights for 70 years following death.
 
Many successful actors, tv presenters, authors and musicians will be used to receiving royalty income long after the initial recording or publication was made and this raises the question of what happens to that income once the creator of the work is no longer around.
 
The answer is that like any other asset in an individual's estate, the right to receive the royalties can be bequeathed in a Will and, in fact, authors will often make particular provision for this and appoint special executors known as "literary executors" to deal with that aspect of their estates.
 
Perhaps one of the most well known examples is that of the literary estate of the Winnie the Pooh author, the late A. A. Milne who died in 1956. Milne left his literary estate to four beneficiaries including the Garrick Club in London and when the rights were sold to the Disney Corporation in 2000 it is reputed that the Garrick Club's share of the proceeds was £50 million, almost half a century after the death of the author.
 
Of course, the majority of literary estates will be modest in comparison, however, the capitalised value of a stream of income over the length of the copyright period can be substantial and the question of who is to benefit from that income after the death of the creator of the works requires serious consideration at the stage at which their Will is being prepared.