In assisting some friends with the collection of a deceased railroad industry employee, we found that he had the foresight to leave a very valuable tool to guide his family, and I wanted to mention it here. Few people show any enthusiasm for estate planning, but this was such a good idea that it is worth considering.

In addition to indicating disposition for major items in his will, he included a list of trusted friends to guide his family in handling the rest of his collections. These were people who he knew well and had talked with in advance. In each case he indicated what that person's area of expertise was, and which parts of his collection they might be able to assist with, or provide advice for, and how to contact them. He also included comments on several groups and individuals who he had experienced problems with, who he did not want involved with his property disposition.

Just wanted to mention it here, as something to consider, for those of us getting up there in years. Family members who are not familiar with railroad industry collectible items can benefit from such guidance.

PC

That's an excellent suggestion.

I might also add, to indicate if there might be a museum or an organisation you might be interested in donating items or funds to. Often enough, those who are left with the estate, may not know (or care!) about many of the items and they may end up in the garbage.

May want also want to plan ahead and, contact these organisations in advance to see if there would be an interest on their part for your proposed donation. Do remember that: They may already have the items you want to donate and might not be interested in taking yet another of the same.

Plan in advance!

Len

Speaking of garbage, an unfortunate tendency for people liquidating collections (i.e. Executors) is to let Peter the Picker evaluate the collection. They talk alot about valuation and he walks out with a box or two of stuff that he will treasure. That went well, so they invite Chuck the Collector to have a look, then Bill the Bookworm, same thing.

At this point, the liquidator realize he is making no progress at all disposing of the collection, after all, *his* objective was to make it all go away. So they call the museum. Museum rep gets there and what does he find? A basement full of Garbage.

Oh yes, there's some treasures in there, but it would take a week of picking to uncover them. But the liquidator won't agree - he's fed up with pickers, he wants the next guy to take it all! Nobody else is walking out of here with "just a box".

So the curator considers the likely value to be found, vs. the labor of rallying a crew to haul all that stuff home and the months of very big sort in too little space, and hauling All those Model Railroaders to the recycling... And he goes "nah".

Of course what happened was the pickers who came before selected all the wheat, leaving him the chaff. That's what picking is. Once a collection has been picked, you will not find a guy willing to talke the chaff home and dumpster it for you. Worst mistake you can make.