CHILDREN OF RAY CHARLES WRANGLE WITH FOUNDATION
The singer and composer Ray Charles passed away back in 2004 at the age of 73. According to a CNN news piece, before he died he made an arrangement with his 12 children, leaving each of them a $500,000 trust fund. What he asked them to do for him in return was to agree never to attempt to obtain anything beyond this from his estate after he passed away.
Now it has turned out that seven of the 12 children have in fact attempted to renegotiate copyrights to 51 of the songs that Ray Charles published during his long and illustrious career. They are being sued by the Ray Charles Foundation, the charitable body that was created by Charles to benefit young people and individuals with hearing disorders.
The foundation states that the Charles children have no legal rights to the songs and that their attempts to seize ownership inherently reduce the value of the copyrights. This is the foundation of their lawsuit, which is seeking $500,000 from each of the children.
When you see how people can emerge years after your death seeking to rearrange the playing field you can understand why careful estate planning is extremely important. Your wishes should be etched in stone and there should be no questions with regard to how you wanted your resources utilized.
Should you be interested in devising an ironclad estate plan with the benefit of expert advice, simply take a moment to arrange for an informative consultation with a licensed, experienced, and savvy Loma Linda CA estate planning lawyer.