You have spent the better part of the last fifty years collecting stuff. It may be baseball cards, Coca Cola memorabilia, dolls, classic cars, Cybis figurines, coins or it could be post cards and books. What will happen to your collection when you are gone?
If you have only one beneficiary who has a similar collection and that beneficiary wants the collection, it is real easy. You could just leave your entire collection to that beneficiary. On the other hand, if you have more than one beneficiary and/or there is a lack of interest in your collection, it can be a little more challenging.
What if your husband said that if he survives you, he was going to use your porcelain doll collection as rifle targets on the back forty?. You might haunt him from the grave. But wouldn’t it be better to leave other instructions to prevent your dolls from meeting such a demise.
You should leave some indication of what your collection is worth. Do you have a $60,000 Coca Cola memorabilia collection, a $150,000 Cybis figurine collection, or a huge coin collection worth only coin face value of about $5,000?
Regardless of the value of your collection, with multiple beneficiaries, you usually either have more than one beneficiary interested in your stuff or no beneficiaries interested. You could divide the entire collection among all your beneficiaries. However, if one of your beneficiaries has no interest in your collection, part of your collection would likely be lost or broken up.
When you have more than one beneficiary interested in your collection, you could divide it up only among those beneficiaries who have an interest in your collection. This could keep the collection going long after you are gone.
What if one of your beneficiaries is a “gimmee” pig who is always saying “gimmee, gimmee, gimmee”? If this beneficiary wants a piece of your collection, then you usually have the same issues as with a beneficiary who really has no interest in the collection. The greedy beneficiary most likely would not take care of or maintain your collection. I have seen more than one situation in which the gimme pig just packs the collections away in his or her attic, basement or barn, until it is trashed at a later date.
To maintain your collection as a complete unit, you may want to leave it to the one beneficiary who is most willing or likely to take care of it. Another way to keep your collection together is to have your estate planning documents provide for an auction among your beneficiaries for the entire collection as a whole.
You could set up a live auction with your beneficiaries in which they would bid on and pay for the purchase of your collection from your estate. Alternatively, beneficiaries could bid on the collection which would set the value for its distribution from your estate. Part of the winning beneficiary’s share of your estate would be your collection valued at the bid amount.
When you have no beneficiaries who have any interest in your collection, you have several options. If you do not care much about what happens to your collection after you are gone, you could either keep it or sell it. If you just kept it, you can enjoy it until the end of your days and then let the beneficiaries fight over it and ultimately dispose of it after you are gone.
You can sell your collection during your lifetime if you are not terribly attached to it. You could be pleasantly surprised at the value of some of these collectibles. Since you are collecting it, there most likely will be someone else out there who also collects it. Ebay and other internet auction sites can get the word out to the most potential buyers.
Another option which can keep your collection intact, is to donate it. You could donate your collection to a charitable organization, museum or other association which would be happy to display such collection. I have been to museums displaying personally donated collections, such as 19th Century hand-drawn maps or early 20th Century painted “eye” jewelry.
If you do not need or want your collection during your lifetime, you could donate your collection while you are still alive. This way, you can have the enjoyment of seeing other people appreciate your collection as it is displayed at the organization or museum.
You may also possibly be able to take an income tax charitable deduction for the donation. In addition, you could set up a maintenance fund that would assure that the collection would be maintained during your lifetime and after you are gone.
Similarly, you could make a bequest that leaves your collection to a charitable organization, museum or other association after you are gone. Just as with a lifetime donation, you could also donate to a maintenance fund that would protect and preserve your collection for generations to come.
You can put conditions on your donation such as when the collection no longer is to be used by the organization, that it could not be sold. In such instances, you could say that either it would have to be donated to another charitable organization for similar purposes or it must be returned to your heirs.
You have worked hard all of your life on your collection. If you want future generations to reap the benefits of your lifetime’s work, you have lots of options. Even if you do not care what happens to your collection, you still have lots of options. You have the control to do whatever you want.
Published edited March 9, 2014 in The Times Herald newspaper, Port Huron, Michigan as: What is going to happen to your collection?