Posthumous Digital Likeness Directive

What Is Posthumous Digital Likeness Directive?

A posthumous digital likeness directive is a written estate-planning instrument in which you say, in advance and in your own words, whether artificial intelligence may recreate your voice, face, and persona after you die, who controls that decision, and on what terms. It converts a default legal right, the postmortem right of publicity, into a set of explicit instructions your fiduciary must follow instead of guessing.

The directive does two practical jobs. It grants someone, usually called a likeness executor or digital executor, the authority to approve, license, restrict, or refuse AI-generated content built from your voice and image. It also records your actual wishes, so that a grieving family is not left arguing over whether you would have wanted a synthetic version of yourself narrating audiobooks, appearing in advertisements, or speaking lines you never said. Because no federal statute comprehensively governs this, the directive draws its enforceable backbone from state right-of-publicity law, which now varies enormously from one jurisdiction to the next.

Why This Matters Now

For most of the last century the postmortem right of publicity was an entertainment-lawyer concern: who could sell a poster of a dead movie star. Generative AI collapsed that distinction. A few minutes of recorded audio is now enough to clone a voice convincingly, and a handful of photographs can drive a video avatar that moves and speaks. The legislatures noticed. Tennessee passed the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act, the ELVIS Act, effective July 1, 2024, the first state law written specifically for AI voice cloning. California followed with AB 1836, New York with S.8391, and Illinois with HB 4875 and HB 4762. The map of who is protected, for how long, and against whom changed in roughly eighteen months.

The commercial side moved just as fast. ElevenLabs raised a $500 million Series D in February 2026 at an $11 billion valuation and began signing estates: Michael Caine, Liza Minnelli, the John Wayne estate, and on May 27, 2026, Stan Lee. The Stan Lee Universe venture licensed his professionally recorded voice for a narrated 'Book Club of the Month' and put his likeness on a marketplace for AI cameos. Run the situation backward and the gap is obvious. The George Carlin estate had to sue in 2024 after a podcast generated a fake Carlin standup special; the matter resolved with a permanent takedown, but only because someone went to court. A directive is the difference between your family setting the terms in advance and your family litigating them after the fact.

The Legal Backbone

What a directive actually controls that a will alone does not

A standard will disposes of property. The postmortem right of publicity is property, so by default it passes to your residuary beneficiaries or whomever your will names, and from there your heirs can do almost anything the local statute permits, including signing a voice-licensing deal. That is the quiet problem. Most wills drafted before 2024 never contemplated a synthetic version of the testator, so they grant no guidance at all. The people who inherit the right are free to monetize it, and they may genuinely believe they are honoring you by keeping your voice 'alive,' even if you would have found the whole idea repellent. A directive fixes the ambiguity at the source by stating the rule before anyone has to interpret your silence.

The directive operates on three levers a bare will leaves untouched. It appoints a likeness executor with named authority to approve or refuse AI-generated content, and it can make that person someone other than your general executor, which matters when the right person to weigh a deepfake offer is your tech-literate niece rather than the sibling handling your bank accounts. It sets the standard of use: forbidden entirely, limited to private family remembrance, or licensable commercially subject to written approval and a defined revenue split. You can require human curation, meaning a real person reviews and finalizes anything generated in your voice before release, so the estate is never on autopilot. And it funds the machinery. Hosting an AI model, paying for storage, and maintaining a marketplace listing cost money every month, so a directive often pairs with a small digital maintenance fund or trust earmarked for those recurring fees rather than leaving the executor to pay out of pocket.

One opinion, stated plainly: the families who will suffer most are the ones who assumed this was a celebrity problem. Voice cloning works on a retired schoolteacher's voicemail greeting as well as it works on a movie star. The cost of writing down your wishes is an afternoon; the cost of not writing them down is a courtroom, or worse, a synthetic you saying things you never would have said, with no one holding a document that says otherwise.

When You Need This

You have recorded media of yourself, voicemails, videos, interviews, podcasts, audiobooks, enough that an AI model could plausibly clone your voice or face

You hold any commercial value in your voice or likeness now or might later, as a performer, narrator, influencer, executive, author, coach, or public figure

You feel strongly, in either direction, about whether a synthetic version of you should exist after death and want that wish to bind your family

You are updating a will or trust drafted before 2024 that says nothing about digital replicas or AI recreation

You live in or own a domicile in California, New York, Texas, Illinois, or Tennessee, where the postmortem AI framework is now explicit and the terms differ sharply

You want to name a separate, tech-savvy likeness executor rather than burden your general executor with AI-licensing decisions

You are weighing a real licensing opportunity, such as an ElevenLabs-style estate deal, and need pre-death authorization and terms in writing

How to Fill Out Posthumous Digital Likeness Directive

1. 1. Identify your domicile and governing law

   State where you are domiciled and which state's right-of-publicity statute governs, because the term and remedies differ: 70 years in California, 50 in Texas, 40 in New York. If you split time between states, name the controlling jurisdiction explicitly so your executor is not litigating choice of law.

2. 2. Choose your core instruction: grant, restrict, or forbid

   Select the headline rule. 'Forbid' bars any AI recreation of your voice or likeness. 'Restrict' permits private, non-commercial family use only. 'Grant' allows commercial licensing subject to approval. Write the chosen standard in unambiguous language, for example: no commercial use of my voice or likeness without the written consent of my likeness executor.

3. 3. Appoint a likeness executor and a successor

   Name the person with authority over AI-likeness decisions, and name at least one successor. Note whether this is the same individual as your estate executor or a separate appointee. Choose someone trustworthy and comfortable with technology, since they will evaluate model quality, licensing offers, and takedown demands.

4. 4. Define approval criteria and prohibited uses

   Spell out what the executor may approve and what is off-limits. Common prohibitions include political content, endorsements you never gave, sexual or intimate depictions, and any output not reviewed and finalized by a human before release. List any approved uses, such as a memorial video or an authorized audiobook narration.

5. 5. Set licensing and revenue terms

   If you permit commercial use, state whether third-party licensing (an ElevenLabs-style marketplace, for instance) is allowed, who negotiates it, the minimum acceptable terms, and how revenue is distributed among beneficiaries or a charity. If you forbid third-party licensing, say so directly.

6. 6. Fund ongoing technical costs

   Allocate a digital maintenance fund or direct your trustee to cover recurring costs: model hosting, storage, subscriptions, and platform fees. Estimate a monthly figure so the executor is not forced to abandon your wishes for lack of money.

7. 7. Cross-reference your will or trust and a digital asset inventory

   Tie the directive into your dispositive instrument. Reference a separate digital asset inventory that lists accounts and stored media but, critically, contains no passwords in the will itself. Include RUFADAA fiduciary-access authorization so your executor can lawfully reach the underlying recordings and accounts.

8. 8. Execute under your state's formalities and register where required

   Sign, witness, and notarize per your state's requirements; remote online notarization and electronic wills are valid in a growing number of states but not all, so confirm yours. In Texas, calendar the one-year Secretary of State registration deadline. Store originals where your executor can find them and review the directive every few years as the law keeps moving.

Key Terms Defined

Postmortem right of publicity

The property right to control commercial use of a deceased person's name, voice, image, and persona, which passes to heirs or assignees and lasts a fixed term set by state law: 70 years in California, 50 in Texas, 40 in New York.

Digital replica

As defined in statutes like California's AB 1836, a computer-generated, highly realistic electronic representation that is readily identifiable as the voice or visual likeness of a specific individual. The term targets AI-generated clones, not generic look-alikes.

Likeness executor

The person you appoint to control AI-recreation decisions about your voice and likeness after death. May be the same as your estate executor or a separate, technically literate appointee with authority to approve, license, restrict, or forbid synthetic content.

ELVIS Act

Tennessee's Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act, effective July 1, 2024, the first state law written specifically for AI voice cloning. It makes voice a protected property right and reaches technology providers whose primary purpose is producing unauthorized replicas.

RUFADAA

The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, adopted in 47 states, which lets you authorize your executor or trustee to access, manage, and dispose of digital assets, including the recordings and accounts an AI model would draw on.

Digital maintenance fund

Money set aside in a will or trust to cover the recurring costs of preserving and operating a posthumous digital likeness, such as AI model hosting, storage, and platform subscription fees, so the executor can carry out your wishes.

Related Documents

Legal Authorities & Sources

This page is grounded in primary law. The statutes and official resources below are the authorities behind the guidance above. Verify the current text of any statute before relying on it.

• California Civil Code 3344.1 (legislative text)
• California AB 1836 bill text
• Vanderbilt Law School: Why Tennessee's ELVIS Act Is the King of AI Protections
• Skadden: Two Newly Enacted New York Laws Will Regulate AI
• Right of Publicity: Texas statute summary
• Variety: Stan Lee Voice and Likeness Licensed to AI Company ElevenLabs
• ElderLawAnswers: AI and the Digital Afterlife, a 2026 Estate Planning Primer

Frequently Asked Questions