Planning for your machine tools after you have departed . . .

This thread started with the following discussion in another thread:

Originally Posted by reggie_obe
Likely as not, when the hoarder dies, becomes mentally or physically incapacitated, few, if any of us will ever hear about it. That "collection" will be liquidated (disposed of) by well meaning heirs or other holders of the power of attorney by the simplest and most expedient manner possible.

Originally Posted by thermite
Fair comment. But as most are not 'in the trade', the probability is that Grandpa's 'treasure' will be initially overvalued, and eventually find its way into the hands of a new conservator is still greater than at the time of the reconfiguring or shutting-down of a revenue shop where the scrapper is already 'in the channel'.

Originally Posted by reggie_obe
A few well written lines in a will or power of attorney can prevent this from happening. How many of us completely fair in this regard? I know that I haven't failed to plan.

Originally Posted by thermite
Sound advice. And as much for the benefit of survivors who may have far too much on their plate already as it may be for finding the machinery a new home. - Bill

Bits & pieces . . .

Reggie,

You got me thinking about this four years ago and in my own planning I have learned a few (very disconnected) things I will share:

o In MD and many other states, estate tax laws can be a pain. In MD if I leave someone one of machines in my will, the State will access the machine and demand an immediate payment of 10% estate tax. Should they overvalue the machine, it will be painful. If I make the gift before I die, the problem goes away. If my widow gives "her" machine to a person I named privately to her, there is also no problem. (It helps to have a cooperative spouse.)

o I have heard of cases where the deceased's true friends respected the widow's privacy, but an interloper showed up claiming to be a good friend who was promised (insert anything you can imagine) and walked off with something he had no right to.

o I am storing a machine for a friend. We have a "Storage Agreement" that spells out what happens to either of us if the other dies. Again, it does take the cooperation of the surviving spouse to avoid the government trying to get a piece of the action.

​

Archie

One thing I did was to set up a loose leaf binder with a page on each significant tool (lathe, mill, saw, welders, etc). It includes a photo, a description of the tool and it's features, what I paid for it, and what it's worth. My son wants some of what I have, but not all of it, and that way, he has an idea what things are worth so he doesn't give it away instead of getting fair value. I did the same thing for everything I have that is significant, even reference books - but the books just get a Post-It inside the cover with any details

BobRenz said:

One thing I did was to set up a loose leaf binder with a page on each significant tool (lathe, mill, saw, welders, etc). It includes a photo, a description of the tool and it's features, ............

Click to expand...

Good idea, maybe even better than keeping the same contents as a computer file, which someone else has to know of its existence and its name. Keep any manuals (originals or copies, sales literature, receipts) in pouches in the same binder. The well organized tool/machine "collector" probably has a similar system, especially if they do much buying and trading.

Although not completed, my rough draft of an attachment to my will includes several key friends who have agreed to handle the responsibilites of overseeing the "change in ownership" of my business tools, home tools and my musical equipment.
The hardest part so far is making sure the master list of "stuff" is up to date, with values for replacement cost and selling cost when the time comes.
All 3 get first option on the items they will oversee.
Items each has shown interest in have been designated for them.
Compiling the list knowing I have someone to help out was comforting.

What keeps me up at night is thinking what would happen if another scenario were to happen, businees so bad that I have to close the doors, and no where to or way to afford keeping the tools that I have aquired.

Mike

Instructions for widows

Archie Cheda said:

This thread started with the following discussion in another thread:

Originally Posted by reggie_obe
Likely as not, when the hoarder dies, becomes mentally or physically incapacitated, few, if any of us will ever hear about it. That "collection" will be liquidated (disposed of) by well meaning heirs or other holders of the power of attorney by the simplest and most expedient manner possible.

Originally Posted by thermite
Fair comment. But as most are not 'in the trade', the probability is that Grandpa's 'treasure' will be initially overvalued, and eventually find its way into the hands of a new conservator is still greater than at the time of the reconfiguring or shutting-down of a revenue shop where the scrapper is already 'in the channel'.

Originally Posted by reggie_obe
A few well written lines in a will or power of attorney can prevent this from happening. How many of us completely fair in this regard? I know that I haven't failed to plan.

Originally Posted by thermite
Sound advice. And as much for the benefit of survivors who may have far too much on their plate already as it may be for finding the machinery a new home. - Bill

Click to expand...

Great discussion ... I was just thinking about that recently. Though I hope to live for many years to come I know that (statistically speaking) I will probably pre-decease my wife, leaving her with the problem of disposing of some 20,000 pounds of machine tools. I've already told her and my daughter that those were purchased for scrap value (mostly true) and have no resale value (partly true, the well-tooled BP and 10EE should fetch several grand each) and that they should just call up the local scrapyard and have everything hauled off with a clear conscience.

I maintain a detailed "Letter of Instructions" document as a guide to my heirs in sorting out all my finances. I'd like to leave better instructions on how to dispose of my shop. We see widows posting on PM from time to time in exactly that situation. Something like "here's the URL, go there and send this message: xxxxxxx". Note my goal would be to have the heavy machinery disappear and not to recover any cash value, though given the generally high levels of personal integrity I've seen from many PM members my heirs might do at least as well as the scrapyard.

So do any of you have thoughts on that idea, instructions for widows?

-Steve M.