Our Estates Management process at PRH is divided into three steps.

Step 1: Establish Legal Inheritance

We must confirm that you are the new legal owner of the author’s work.

Please email the following documents to us at estates@prh.com.

1. Completed Estate Questionnaire, linked below

2. Death Certificate

3. Will and any Codicils

4. Letters Testamentary and/or Letters of Administration

5. Trust document and related amendments, if any

We need this documentation to verify that the decedent has indeed passed away, and that the requestor has legal authority to instruct us about where to send the author’s share of earnings under the terms of the author’s contract(s).

Standard processing time for document review is 6-8 weeks. A team member will respond to you if additional documentation is needed.

Optional: If you know that you will be redirecting payments (e.g. if PRH paid royalties directly to the deceased and not through a literary agent), you may also submit the materials requested in Step 2 at this time.

If you are NOT going to be redirecting payments – for example, if the deceased was being paid through a literary agency and was a US citizen – skip to Step 3.

Step 2: Redirect Payments

We need to confirm how to direct any payments that may come due.

Before we can issue payments to a new payee (be it a trust, an individual, or a charity) we’ll need the following:

1. Tax form (ie. a W9 or W8BEN)

2. Payment Form (ie. an ACH or E-Wire form)

3. Voided check or aN ACCOUNT VERIFICATION letter (emphasized because it’s commonly missed)

You can download all the forms here: https://randomhouse.box.com/v/estatesforms.

The Estates team will pass your completed and signed paperwork to the Royalties department, who will create your payment account.

Please note: if the decedent was NOT a US Citizen, we must confirm the heir’s tax and payment information to comply with federal tax reporting requirements. This applies even if the deceased was paid via a literary agent.

Step 3: Access the Author Portal

We set you up in our internal systems so that you may access the Penguin Random House Author Portal.

The Author Portal is home to sales figures, digital royalty statements, rights information, and more. Heirs are entitled to access portal records relating to the deceased’s works.

Once our internal system is updated with your email address, you may sign up for the Author Portal. To register:

1. Visit https://authors.penguinrandomhouse.com 

2. Enter your name and the same email address provided to the estates team

3. A verification e-mail will follow with an access link and details on how to set up a password

Please note that your access to the author portal hinges on our system being updated to reflect that you are the new legal copyright owner. This may take additional time to complete.