Intellectual property is often the most valuable and most overlooked asset in an estate, and every kind of it follows its own rulebook when the owner dies. This guide maps how copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, royalty contracts, and the right of publicity each pass to heirs, and why the non-waivable copyright termination right under 17 U.S.C. §§ 203 and 304 can override even a carefully drafted will. It explains why patents are melting ice while copyrights run for the author's life plus seventy years, why a trademark cannot be inherited apart from the goodwill of its business, and why a trade secret can be destroyed by the very probate filing that catalogs it. It works through the estate-planning toolbox (wills, revocable trusts, grantor trusts, holding entities, and beneficiary designations), the IP-specific tax traps under 26 U.S.C. §§ 1221, 1235, 1014, and 691, valuation for the estate, and the digital-assets problem under RUFADAA and the Stored Communications Act. The aim is a plan that routes the right rights to the right people and keeps every income stream alive.