Is Your Artwork Collection Clutter?
Estate planning lawyers have been warning seniors for decades that inheriting personal property is not as much of a cause for celebration as they think it is. The same seniors who went through months of stress, taking road trips every weekend to clear out all the clutter from their deceased parents’ house and arguing with their siblings about the unfairly distributed workload, seem blissfully unaware that their own personal property will register as clutter to their heirs. The media have had this conversation about various types of personal property. Your kids don’t want to inherit china plates that can’t go in the dishwasher and silverware that they have to polish. When you read that, you laughed and said, “Good riddance to my ex-wife and her family heirloom dinnerware! My kids will be delighted to inherit my sports memorabilia!” Bad news, Grandpa. Your sports memorabilia is clutter, too. Now you might be thinking, “The yokels outside the Beltway hold onto inherited dining sets and kitschy memorabilia, but not us! Here, in the capital of the world, we collect artwork, and artwork is valuable!” The point is that personal property, no matter what it is, but money is more useful to your descendants than stuff is. To prevent your artwork collection from becoming burdensome to your family, contact a Washington, D.C. estate planning lawyer.
Someone Probably Wants the Artwork in Your Collection, but the Person Might Not Be a Member of Your Family
Paintings that a deceased relative bought because the relative wanted to display them in her house because they are beautiful weigh about the same as paintings that a deceased relative bought with the expectation that they would appreciate in value. If you are old enough to think about estate planning, you are old enough to understand that you cannot expect the aesthetic tastes or financial values of the younger members of your family to align with yours.
To your family, your art collection represents a heavy burden for them. When you are gone, they will have to pack your artwork and store it. Eventually, they will appraise it and resell it. The best thing you can do now is ask your relatives which pieces in your collection, if any, they want to inherit. If they choose any pieces, list these in your will, or transfer them to the beneficiaries now.
As for everything else, there are people whose job is to attend to artwork that someone bought decades ago. Those people are the best destination for your artwork collection. You can be sure that they will find someone to buy it, thereby leaving more money for your estate, or else someone who will accept it as a donation, ensuring that the artwork you spent a fortune on does not end up in a garbage dump.
Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C. About Artwork and Your Estate Plan
A Washington, D.C. estate planning attorney can help you appraise your artwork so that the task does not fall to the personal representative of your estate or your heirs. Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C. in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.
Source:
msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/the-next-gen-don-t-want-it-boomers-have-spent-trillions-on-art-and-it-may-be-nothing-but-a-hassle-for-the-kids-who-inherit-it/ar-AA29LMvJ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=6a7a6ffd51234bf5b925761f6a6f2233&ei=43
