How long do estates operate?

In 2013, Rolling Stone magazine ran an article about the estate of Marvin Gaye suing someone for plagiarism. What’s interesting about this is that Marvin Gaye passed away in 1984, more than 30 years ago.

My question is: How long can estates “operate”? While it makes perfect sense that there are legal matters which have to resolved after a person has died, shouldn’t there come a time when all the affairs of a deceased person have been settled for good which would, for instance, in the case of Mr. Gaye include transferring copyrights to his heirs or maybe to a company or foundation?

(I claim total ignorance in American law, so please bear with me if this is a stupid question :o )

The George Gershwin Estate is still in business; Gershwin died in 1937.

The answer is “for as long as there is anything of value that brings in money to the estate.” For long-lived estates, that usually has something to do with intellectual property: Gaye’s songs are still under copyright and still bring in money to his heirs. Once the copyrights expire, his estate will dissolve.

His heirs could transfer the copyright to a trust or other entity – indeed, they may actually have done so – but that would be referred to informally as his estate.

What about things like his likeness and name? Couldn’t that extend the reason for the estate to exist past the song copyrights?

I noticed yesterday that the death of actress Lauren Bacall was first announced by the estate of her deceased husband, Humphrey Bogart - who died in 1957. So apparently his estate is still going strong (I see they even have a Facebook page).

I wonder what it means when your estate has more “friends” than you did.

In some cases, I guess it means someone died 50 years or so before there was a Facebook to join.

I suppose an estate could persist for so long that it would eventually be managed by the estate of the executor. :eek:

Apparently this is the case with the Marilyn Monroe estate.

But, wouldn’t copyrights normally just go through probate and be transferred to heirs (or a trust for the heirs) more or less immediately?

Who is the person who has been dead the longest but still has an active estate? Are there active estates for people who died in the 1700’s? 1600’s? Can I sue the estate of George Washington? George Washington’s paternal great-grandfather? Oliver Cromwell? William Wallace? Joseph of Aramathea? St. Augustine?

California has an unusual law, the California Celebrities Rights Act.

You therefore won’t find equivalents going back in history. The law was passed specifically to give protection to the movie industry, which has huge political power in California. It can be applied elsewhere, of course, but the circumstances of its origin were special.

Eventually, the rule against perpetuities kicks in: Rule against perpetuities - Wikipedia

There is no point in suing an estate unless it has assets in it, and it is not possible to sue an estate unless there is an executor or other personal representative to name in your suit. (And, once the estate has no more assets, there is no reason to appoint an executor to replace the first one who must, eventually, die.)

In theory an estate could continue indefinitely. As Bizerta points out, in common law jurisdictions the rule against perpetuities normally prevents an estate from running indefinitely, but there are exceptions to the rule - e.g. trusts for charities. If I provided in my will that my executors were to manage my property to generate income, and to pay the income to one or more charities, but not to transfer capital assets to them, I’d hazard a guess that there would be some jurisdictions in which that would be valid, and the arrangement is at least in theory capable of lasting indefinitely.

In practice I would probably set up a distinct structure to manage the funds, and leave my property to them. That’s pretty much what Alfred Nobel did, or Joseph Pulitzer. In substance, the Nobel Foundation is basically the estate of Alfred Nobel, carrying out the instructions in his will. But, as a matter of form, it’s a foundation established by his estate.

Elvis’ estate is worth many multiples more than when he we as living.