We've all known someone who died suddenly without any plans in place for their end of life experience. Their families sometimes struggle to deal with the property in their estate. This is especially true for families of collectors. It’s not a pleasant or popular topic, but no matter the time you spend on it, estate planning is something that each collector should give some consideration to.
The fact is, most of us who collect have A LOT of cool stuff. In some cases, our families are part of our collecting and enjoy it as much as we do. In other cases, they barely tolerate our interests. But no matter what, we owe it to our loved ones to make some kind of plan that can be followed when we're not around anymore to determine what happens to all of our stuff. Most importantly, we shouldn’t make our treasured things a burden on anyone later.
There are an enormous amount of things that need to be taken into consideration when planning an estate. Here’s just a few:
Who to leave their collections or parts of their collections to
How to potentially divide it among heirs
Whether to donate it and to which museums or associations
And much more than I’ve imagined
Maybe the most serious consideration from our perspective would be a circumstance that requires leaving the collection completely to family to dispose of the property without any guidance. In many cases there can be large numbers of kids and grandkids who have absolutely no interest in our hobby, and as sad as that is, it is made worse because it makes it very difficult to realize the value we built up in our collection when our families who, want or need to dispose of it, are not collectors.
Something should be said for the preservation of the collection, too. Non-collecting heirs are likely to inadvertently prevent the enjoyment of it by others. Not understanding the monetary value as mentioned is a concern, but when heirs don’t understand the intangible value, the effects of poor estate planning can be most harmful.
As unique as your collection may be, you almost certainly have become part of a community of collectors over time. In many ways, some version of your existing collection could be the legacy your community and others beyond it remember you by, but in a lot of cases, it is the memory of what the collection once was or that it even existed that only your closest friends and family will remember. And when they take those memories with them, all representation of your collecting decisions and all your stories are gone forever, regardless of how important they were to you or anyone else now or in the future. Some planning can prevent that and make sure others have the opportunity to learn from your collecting work.
Because estate planning is such an important responsibility, the Antique Powerland Museum Association is willing to help our fellow collectors do the right thing for their collections and their families. If we receive enough interest, we will ask an attorney to come and speak to us about all the things that we need to consider regarding estate planning. Maybe we can get a group rate or a discount on wills and such. Please let us know in the comments if you’d be interested in learning more.