I want to update my current trust to have something recorded how to manage my affiliate revenue. Now that I work from home, my rev share will continue to send payments regardless of my time dedication and even upon death. By most standards, this would be a considerable amount of passive income. Has the conversation come up on how to transfer your accounts or set up a trust so your revenue goes somewhere useful and not to Uncle Sam? I searched the form with "Inherit" and didn't see this subject before. If you have any thoughts or would like to share what you have done, your input would be most kind! Inheritance? Trust? Donations? Just sell -- naw.... worth more if not sold.
Uncle Sam will get his share.. He always does.. Talk to an estate attorney or an accountant with estate experience..
I have found most people have no clue what SEM is much less give examples of what to do with rev share once someone has died. Even my CPA doesn't have any other internet markers for clients...no estate attorney known. Tips? Anyone else have experience on what they have done with affiliate income after someone dies?
IANAL, so take this as you will, but my dad passed recently and I've been thinking about these issues myself. It seems like it would be important for your affiliate accounts and domains were in the name of your business or trust, rather than your personal name. You could then set up your affairs so that the ownership of your business and/or trustee of the trust was smoothly transferred to your heirs upon your death. That way essentially nothing changes from the affiliate program's point-of-view - they are paying the business/trust and they should continue to do so even if the business owner/trustee was a different person. I don't see how this would be significantly more difficult than a brick-and-mortar business being inherited upon the owner's death. If your CPA doesn't know how to set this up, ask around (maybe at a local CoC meeting?) to find a local estate attorney who has experience with business owners. What you don't want is for the accounts to be issuing checks or trying to make payments into an account that's in your personal name. Banks and credit card companies can be pretty efficient in removing the deceased's name from their account information, so you don't want your business to be reliant on having access to your personal accounts (or a joint account with your name on it). Also, be sure that you have a list of accounts and passwords that can be passed on to your heir(s) after your death.