From Paintings to Pixels: Estate Planning for Artists in the Digital Age
February 26, 2025
Attorney Sara Johnson presented a workshop on digital estate planning. This workshop is part of the Center for Art Law’s Visual Artists Legal Clinic programming.
In planning their creative legacy, artists should have in mind both their physical and digital assets, such as digital artwork files, online portfolio, emails, website and even social media accounts. In this workshop, our guest provides an overview of estate planning for visual artists and what are some of the particularities of dealing with digital assets, such as Artificial Intelligence post-mortem planning and clauses, who is to inherit access to digital assets, and relevant legislative provisions including the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act.
About the Speaker:
Sara Johnson, Esq., Ph.D, TEP, CFP, LL.M (US Law), JD
Vice-President, High Net-Worth Planning Services – International estate, art and digital legacy planning
Sara Johnson specializes in international estate planning, art collection and digital legacy planning for ultra-high net-worth families in developing their wealth and legacy plans at RBC Family Office. She has two decades of professional experience in complex estate and trust administration and planning.
She is a graduate of Masters in US Law at Antonin Scalia Law school, George Mason University and obtained a PH. D. in International Management at International School of Management in Paris, France, and has obtained her certification from the National Committee on Accreditation of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, through UBC Peter A. Allard School of Law. Sara was admitted to the California State Bar in 2021 and is member of ABA and the Beverly Hills Bar association in Los Angeles, California. She is an active member of PAIAM in NY, Institute for Art and Law, and ALA in London UK, and Center for Art Law.
Sara has many other certifications, but relevant to today’s presentation on Art estate planning, she obtained the special certifications “Art as a global business” , Sotheby’s Institute of Art; “Art disruption, NFT and tokenization of Art, legal and tax planning” European Institute of Sustainability, in Rome Italy and “Tangible Things, Scientific Specimens, Artifacts and Artworks” by Harvard Law school, EdX.
Handout:
Read the handout HERE.
