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Case file s1708 · Music and sport · 1967
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1967
Brian Epstein: Collectie / Archief : Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie : [ onbekend ] Beschrijving : Aankomst Brian Epstein (manager Beatles) op Schiphol (Grand Gala du Disque
Brian Epstein. Joop van Bilsen for Anefo. CC0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
27 August 1967
Place
London, England
Field
artist manager (The Beatles) · Visual art and architecture on the timeline
Legal tradition
English common law · Common law
Historical event
Beatlemania and the breakup of the Beatles' business
Religion
Brian Epstein: Jewish (recorded as British Masorti Jews, English Ashkenazi Jews, Gay Jews on Wikipedia)
Music and sportPostwarEuropeUnited Kingdom

Brian Epstein died at 32 owed 25 percent of the Beatles' royalties for nine years, and his mother sold that claim to a City investment trust

Brian Epstein was found dead in his locked bedroom. The coroner ruled an accidental overdose of Carbrital with alcohol. A will left his house and money to his mother, Queenie, and his brother, Clive, according to his assistant Peter Brown. His company NEMS, renamed Nemperor, passed to the family: Queenie 70 percent, Clive 20 percent, the Beatles 10 percent. A January 1967 EMI contract gave NEMS 25 percent of Beatles royalties for nine years whether or not the band renewed with Epstein. The Beatles wanted the company. Queenie and Clive met their rival advisers, John Eastman and Allen Klein, then sold to Triumph Investment Trust on 17 February 1969. Klein told EMI to pay Apple directly, and EMI froze £1.3 million in royalties. On 1 April 1969 the High Court refused Triumph's bid to freeze them. Under the settlement, NEMS gave up its 25 percent and took £750,000 in cash, 5 percent of gross record royalties from 1972 to 1976, and £50,000 for its 23 percent of Subafilms. The Beatles swapped their 10 percent of NEMS for 266,000 Triumph shares. The deal closed on 27 August 1969, two years to the day after Epstein died. Eastman later said Klein's tactics cost the Beatles over £1.5 million. NEMS's royalty claim ended with the 1976 payments.

What the law took from it

A manager's contract that outlives the manager becomes an asset his heirs can sell to a stranger.

Sources
  1. the-paulmccartney-project.comPress
  2. beatlesbible.comPress
  3. the-paulmccartney-project.comPress
  4. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Brian Epstein died at 32 owed 25 percent of the Beatles' royalties for nine years, and his mother sold that claim to a City investment trust,” story s1708, https://www.celebrity.estate/brian-epstein-1967, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Music and sportPostwarEuropeCommon lawUnited Kingdom