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Originally Posted by Cool Hand Lurker
Charlie, I hate to say it but I think you will be creating a real headache for whomever has to clean up after you. It all sounds good, but in truth it creates a huge job for the executor in an area that they will probably have absolutely no experience or even interest. "Huge job" translates to "Expensive" and the activity described will milk your estate dry. Compare it to if you had to follow the same process to get the best buck out of your deceased sister's lifetime Barbie doll collection. That's a lot of work for something you would probably have little interest in and no incentive to do a thorough job.
The best way to handle this that I have seen happened last summer. A friend had a family of five siblings who all wanted parts of his Model T & A collection. It was an impossible situation. They all agreed to have an auction and bid on the things they wanted. Some of them did not get what they wanted because they did not bid high enough, but agreed that the estate did better and they did receive their fair share of the proceeds so nobody got cheated. If they had really wanted the item they could have bid higher but it was their choice. And they did not have to go through all the work you suggested because the auctioneer took care of everything and all of the stuff got sold at market rate, even the junk. And at a much lower fee than the attorney or executor would have charged the estate! A side benefit was that a lot of family and old friends came to the auction and talked to the family about the deceased and they felt better about it afterwards.
It might not have gone the way you as the deceased wanted it to, but like they say you can't take it with you. And you can't really tell people what to do once you are gone, no matter how much that Model A meant to you.
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Cool Hand Lurker,
You are absolutely right about someone trying to follow these instructions that is making $400 an hour and has no knowledge about what they are doing. The problem is that I may be missing details about the settlement of a will. I must admit I know little about the settlement of wills and naively assumed they were similar. Does a will require an attorney or attorneys staff to be an executer? I don't know but if anyone does I would like to know. Reference to wills should be deleted from my write up and executer should be changed to trustee. I was advised by my attorney that the size of my estate (and it is not that big but includes my house) made a living trust the best document for planning and at that point lost interest in the fine points of a will. With a living trust you appoint trustees (friends not lawyers, choose them well) with successor trustees in case one is not available or chooses not to accept the responsibility. The trustees can serve at no cost. There is no fee established for the trustees but if they tried to bill the estate an outrageous amount I think the heirs could contest it in court. Thank you for your comments. I think by having a closed bid auction over a two month period I have accomplished almost the same thing. How did you advertise your auction? What do you think of eBay for the complete cars of major parts (maybe group the parts into a lot and put them on eBay) which creates an open bid auction?
Charlie Stephens