Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
I like (and have also suggested the same general structure. But I'll make some nip and tucks to it.
SIDEBAR (Everybody talks about Life + X to protect widows and ophans of creators. Ophans should not be protected after age of majority! The author went out and earned a living, so should his grown childen! I might stretch it to 25 for additional education, assuming they were conceived but not born until after the author's death, but that's max. And if the children are already grown, no X for them! As for widows, X would be their lifetime, period.) END SIDEBAR
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Sounds like something straight out of Heinlein.
However, I would suggest that having X = Widow's lifetime might result in an attempt to game the system. An elderly author would be incentivized to divorce and pick up a young new bride in order that his estate may continue to accrue income for decades longer than the worn-out husk of his previous wife is likely to. In turn, a new trust can be established for the divorced wife so she continues receiving most or all of the income until she dies... and then the new wife starts getting hers. Or even less, if you could get her to agree to a lesser contract before marriage. Of course, this scheme would only work once.