With the AEG-produced Michael Jackson movie coming out soon and remastered Beatles albums setting sales records, it would seem that dead celebrities are pulling in more cash these days than living ones.

Indeed, a lucrative industry has cropped up around valuing dead celebrity estates, including physical property and royalty rights, which are often worth tens of millions of dollars.

The big four accounting firms each have valuation divisions, with some of the more specialized firms headquartered in Southern California. Many of those firms are angling for the opportunity to help value Jackson’s numerous assets after the pop singer’s death earlier this year.

FMV Opinions Inc., an Irvine firm with Los Angeles offices, has been a player in this niche for the past two decades. It has been involved in some high-profile deals, including the valuation of the estate of Charles Schulz, the creator of Charlie Brown.

“You get some very fascinating stories with celebrity estates and some very hard-to-value assets,” said Carsten Hoffmann, a managing director and partner at FMV, which has not yet determined whether it will seek the Jackson business.

From valuing unique assets to handling changing tax codes, the challenges can be many. Typically, specialists try to determine as accurately as possible the cash flow coming from various assets, such as music royalty payments. In the case of real estate, appraisers need to figure out how much the property would sell for on the open market.

But that alone can be a head-scratcher. Since there is only one Neverland Ranch, who knows what it’s really worth?

The media has speculated that Jackson’s total estate could be worth a half-billion dollars, making it one of the largest celebrity estates in years – thus a coup for its valuation firm. But Hoffmann said that in most cases, celebrity estates tend to fall in the $20 million-$50 million range. Among other prominent celebrities who have passed away this year are actors Farrah Fawcett and Patrick Swayze, and infomercial pitchman Billy Mays.

Those kinds of names alone can boost the value of an asset, but that’s not always the case.

Bob Dietrich, FMV managing director in charge of real estate appraisals, said some people will pay a premium for a dead celebrity’s house, while others stay far away.

“If they know that tour buses are going to be driving by every couple hours, they might not want to get involved,” Dietrich said.