Brian Wilson was placed in a conservatorship after his wife died, while his first wife sued for half of a $50 million rights sale

In December 2021 Brian Wilson sold his songwriter share and his copyright termination interests to Universal Music Publishing Group in a deal valued at more than $50 million. The termination interest alone sold for $19.2 million. In 2022 his first wife, Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford, sued for more than $6.7 million. A 1981 divorce judgment gave her half the rights in 170 songs he wrote during their 1964 to 1978 marriage. He had offered $3.3 million. His lawyers argued the termination rights did not exist until 30 years after the divorce. In August 2022 a federal court in Los Angeles ruled that copyright law did not block her claim and sent it to state court. The outcome has not been reported^†. His second wife, Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, who ran his affairs, died on 30 January 2024. On 10 May 2024 Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gus T. May placed Wilson, then 81 and diagnosed with a major neurocognitive disorder, under a conservatorship of the person. His publicist Jean Sievers and manager LeeAnn Hard became conservators. His money stayed in a trust with Hard as trustee. The judge ordered the conservators to consult his seven children on medical decisions. Wilson died on 11 June 2025, at 82. The trust's terms are private.