[vcf-midatlantic] Downsizers, Sick, Old, and Dying Collector -- Special Interest group to focus on "artifact wills"

[Martin A. Flynn]

On 3/27/2024 1:18 PM, Bob Roswell via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> While on the sad topic of Bryan,  I would love to start/participate in a special interest group to focus on best practices for "artifact wills."
>
> As the curator of a museum, I get calls, and emails many times a month from (usually) widows and children trying to figure out how dispose of their loved one's collection.
>
> There is a mature industry for estate planning, but they usually don't include the collections of stuff.  Some general articles exist like https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/estate-planning-for-memorabilia-collectors
>
> I could imagine the following results off the top of my head:
>
> 1)  Documentation Corps: VCFED would have a corps of volunteers who could visit home/storage units while the collector is still alive.  We could document what is there and capture oral histories from the collector.
>
> 2) Publish a document on disposition of the stuff
>
>                * Donation to museum (with tax write-off)
>                * Gift to other individuals
>                * Consignment or Swap Meets
>                * Ebay/Craigslist
>                * High end Auction houses (RR Auction Etc)
>                * Electronics Recyclers
> The document would provide contacts as well as a brief overview of the process.
>
> Anyone interest?
>
> Bob Roswell
>
> Curator, Computer Museum @ System Source
> https://museum.syssrc.com
> broswell at syssrc.com
> 410-771-5544 ext 4336

Kicked this reply around a bit before hitting send:

While the concept of sparing our families this task is admirable, I will 
put this out as a caveat:

A  collection (or even individual items) acquired after marriage is an 
marital asset.   In this case, you would be providing a ready-made list 
to your spouse's attorney to liquidate in order to fund a potential 
divorce  settlement.

Sad to point his out, I have a close friend who just went through a 
acrimonious divorce and had to liquidate his amateur collection and test 
gear based on exactly such a document.

Martin