Old Cars and Trusts/Wills

[Charlie Stephens]

After watching a couple of estates of old car friends being settled I decided to put together a document to include with my living trust as instructions for the distribution of my old cars and parts. The following is a first cut at the document. Note that the cars and parts are fictitious in this example so this can serve as a template for other old Ford owners. Your comments would be sincerely appreciated. Additional sources to advertise would be especially appreciated. My apologies in advance to non Ford owners but my cars and knowledge of advertising sites are all Fords. I intend to leave this on fordbarn for a while and then incorporate comments and post it on HAMB for their comments.

Guidance for Trust Executer

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to the executer of my trust regarding the distribution of my cars and parts. This document is for guidance and nothing in this document is intended to supersede the basic trust document.

If the car is going to stay in the family, you can probably, with the concurrence of the estate lawyer, use a reference such as the Old Cars Price Guide (available at Barnes & Noble book stores) to establish a value for the purpose of settling the estate.

If the car is determined to be junk donate it to a charity instead of calling a towing company and paying to have it removed.

Compare the VIN (or serial number) on the car with the paperwork if you are dealing with complete cars and not just parts. A mismatch can kill a sale plus will drag everything out if it is not started early.

Get many good digital photos. You will need to send them to people asking questions. Show exterior all views, engine compartment, upholstery, and as many other as need to show car completely. Include defects and problem areas.

If we are talking about selling a high dollar car (which I define as over $20K based on values shown in “The Old Cars Price Guide”) spend the money and hire a professional appraiser. Talk to the members of local clubs to find an appraiser. Maybe the estate lawyer has one they can recommend. Get a professional appraiser and not someone with an interest in buying the car. As a check bounce this number off of some members of a local club. Check for sale ads for similar cars. Remember that low mileage original cars carry a premium. At this time you should have an idea about what you can sell the car for.

Probably the best place for national advertising is Hemming’s Motor news (available at Barnes & Noble). Remember when advertising that it may not be worth the money to get national exposure since most cars will sell within a couple of hundred miles. Ebay is a good place to sell a car or major parts.


Cars and major parts currently covered by trust. The dollar values shown are rough estimates as of the date at the bottom of this document and should be verified dollar value shown next to each entry is a guess at the time this document was signed and is intended to be used for guidance only. Omission of cars and/or parts from this list is not intended to exclude them from the trust nor is inclusion intended to add them to the trust.

1927 Model T roadster___________$XX
1931 Model A roadster___________$XX
1932 Early V8 2 door sedan_______$XX


NOS 1932 Ford engine___________$XX

Ownership papers for the cars are located ______________________. All cars have current registration or non operation status so if duplicated ownership documents are required they may be requested from the state DMV. Keys are hanging _____________. Duplicate keys are in my safe deposit box located _________________.

Recommended people to contact for support. These are people in the hobby that I trust and have asked for their support should it be required. Their membership in national organizations may be useful to place ads at no cost. If they are to be actively involved in selling the cars/parts pay them.

Model T’s:_______________
Alternate_______________
Model A’s:_______________
Alternate:_______________
Early V8’s:_______________
Alternate:_______________

For any car go to the national club web sites and find the local clubs. The national web sites are:

For Model T’s: mtfc.org

For Model A’s: mafca.com and modelaford.org

For early V8’s: earlyfordv8.org

Write a letter, call and/or attend local club meetings with pictures. Ask if they would place an ad in their monthly newsletter. If the club is smart they will do this at no cost as a service to their members. If they want more than a token amount for the ad just skip their club and tell them why. Unless you car is very unusual it will probably sell to someone within a couple of hundred miles. Contact all of the clubs within this radius. Remember if you contact the clubs by email to include photos with your email as there is a good chance that someone will forward you email to a general distribution list for the club. You should plan on a couple of months for information to work its way through the system. Newsletters have cut off dates and your request may go through a couple of people before it finally gets to the editor of the newsletter. Advertise the cars with a best offer at the end of the two month period and reserve the right to reject any or all offers. If things don’t sell, and it is possible, wait a year and try again.

There are several web sites that have classified sections (be sure your vehicle ends up in the right section). Ads are free but donations cheerfully accepted. Place these ads within a couple of weeks before the closing dates in the club newsletters. These sites are:

Fordbarn.com (separate sections for T, A, V8)

Ahooga.com (A)

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/ (T, A, V8 plus other makes)

The final question is what to do with all of those extra parts. Try to package them with the complete cars to the greatest extent possible. Most of the parts in my garage are in boxes marked to show which car they go to. Another outlet is to contact the local antique auto parts suppliers and get a bid on the lot. Since these people must haul, sort, inventory and sell these parts their prices will be less than if you sell the parts yourself. Maybe have an auction with members of local clubs present. After you have sold all that you can donate them to a local car club or tell the members they can have them for free. This is better and cheaper than paying someone to haul them away.


Signed:__________

Dated:___________