A Cautionary Tale – Getting your affairs in order before passing on

[parkplace33]

One of my relatives works in the house clean out industry (basically emptying out houses, apartments, etc so they can be sold or rented). He told me that last week, his company had to clean out a house of a recent widow. While cleaning out, the widow talked about some items that had to be moved to her new apartment. One was a large collection of baseball cards in binders owned by the deceased husband. The widow went into a rather long diatribe about the collection and stated the following:

1. The husband gave the family no information about the collection. Nothing about value, inventory, condition. She thought it may have been 60s baseball and football cards, but wasn’t sure (the husband grew up in that era). She thought maybe he said it was worth 10k a few years ago.
2. A few years ago, the family asked the husband about the collection. He stated, “I will get around to it”. He never did.
3. The family (especially the widow) was very upset over having to deal with this collection. She went on about how maybe the money could be used to expenses, but now, they will have to do research about it and figure out who wants what or what can be sold.

I know some members joke about taking cards to the grave, but that isn’t feasible and more often than not, the above is the end result. I implore anyone with a collection of value to

- Get a will (or the like)
- Talk to your heirs about your wishes and also ask them about their wishes
- Inventory the collection and anything of value that will be passed on