>> not sure if Ian Stuart got anything in his closing years <<
i don't know the answer to your questions either, but why would you think Stu wasn't being paid??
he worked for the Stones, and in what you call his "closing years" he was a hard-workin man in his prime who died very unexpectedly.
and even if the band was on the brink of falling apart in 85, they *didn't* fall apart, nor did the whole Stones Inc go kablooey.
love & light to Stu.
"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith