Estate planning for your LEGO collection

Blockwork_Orange

As some of us that have been collecting LEGO for many year are getting older I was wondering how people have been tackling the question of what they want to happen to their collection after they pass away. 

Is it as simple as leaving it to your children or other family member to enjoy or would you want it to be broken up and given to other collectors?  Would it need to be just liquidated so that your beneficiaries can have the money?

Personally I have no specific plan in place yet other than it would go to my spouse with the rest of my estate.   

Fizyx

Blockwork_Orange said:

As some of us that have been collecting LEGO for many year are getting older I was wondering how people have been tackling the question of what they want to happen to their collection after they pass away. 

Is it as simple as leaving it to your children or other family member to enjoy or would you want it to be broken up and given to other collectors?  Would it need to be just liquidated so that your beneficiaries can have the money?

Personally I have no specific plan in place yet other than it would go to my spouse with the rest of my estate.   

I can kick it off by saying that, especially as you start to get into collections that have a hundred of more sets, the absolute best and most important thing you can do is to keep a good, accurate inventory.  No matter what ends up happening to the collection in after that, I can guarantee that your friends/family will be profusely thanking you.

BooTheMightyHamster

Mrs Boo apparently has some definite plans for my collection.  I just worry that she either:

a) won't wait until I've gone to start selling it off, or
b) given that I've just had to get everything out of storage so we can do some work on the house and she now knows how much there is and what it's worth, my demise may come sooner than I'd like.

If 'I' start posting on here, saying I want to sell my entire collection off, ask to see evidence that I'm still alive, kicking and have all my faculties first!

Speedman29

My worry is my wife will sell off the sets for what I told her I paid for them!

Fizyx

BooTheMightyHamster said:

Mrs Boo apparently has some definite plans for my collection.  I just worry that she either:

a) won't wait until I've gone to start selling it off, or
b) given that I've just had to get everything out of storage so we can do some work on the house and she now knows how much there is and what it's worth, my demise may come sooner than I'd like.

If 'I' start posting on here, saying I want to sell my entire collection off, ask to see evidence that I'm still alive, kicking and have all my faculties first!

No promises.  Going to depend on what kinds of deals 'you' are offering. <.<

mr_benn

It's a really good question, not at all an easy one, and one that probably goes through the mind of anyone collecting anything.

And the answer all depends on your circumstances.  Instead of stipulating what happens to it, it may be better to give your beneficiaries the chance to decide what happens with it - do they keep or not.  But if they want to get rid of it because of space, lack of interest, etc - ensure that they have the information they need to be able to do this - not only an inventory, but also potential reliable purchasing sources and how much it could be worth.  Nobody wants to leave a massive task for their family to deal with - especially at that difficult sort of time - so knowing who/where might consider bulk lots might be really useful.  Obviously what you don't want is things being sold off terribly cheaply because nobody knew the value.

Of course there may be a period of time when you are in a position to help sell it off yourself - if you know that nobody will want to inherit, this may be a good way to do things.

daewoo

I need to ask my kids if they want it.  If they don't, then, well, I'm not sure what I'll do in my will.

bricktuary

I might stipulate that they sell the modulars and then make my coffin out of whatever's left.

Bumblepants

daewoo said:

I need to ask my kids if they want it.  If they don't, then, well, I'm not sure what I'll do in my will.

Send it to the coolest and best guy in your LUG who is definitely me? I have never derailed meetings with long boring rambles, a compelling virtue to be sure.

KungFuKenny

Maybe I'll go out with a bang-- just lump all 972 sets together and give the best Secret Santa gift ever...

560Heliport

KungFuKenny said:

Maybe I'll go out with a bang-- just lump all 972 sets together and give the best Secret Santa gift ever...

Wow! That would boost my number of sets by about 40%!  ;)

KungFuKenny

560Heliport said:

KungFuKenny said:

Maybe I'll go out with a bang-- just lump all 972 sets together and give the best Secret Santa gift ever...

Wow! That would boost my number of sets by about 40%!  ;)

I think you had a head start though-- I just came out of my Dark Age 9 years ago! :)

560Heliport

KungFuKenny said:

560Heliport said:

KungFuKenny said:

Maybe I'll go out with a bang-- just lump all 972 sets together and give the best Secret Santa gift ever...

Wow! That would boost my number of sets by about 40%!  ;)

I think you had a head start though-- I just came out of my Dark Age 9 years ago! :)

Roughly 38 year head start: no Dark Age! 47 years of Lego fun! 

daewoo

Bumblepants said:

Send it to the coolest and best guy in your LUG who is definitely me? I have never derailed meetings with long boring rambles, a compelling virtue to be sure.

I'll keep that in mind, though Nick might have something to say about it.  :D

truck730

Morbid subject  but nonetheless it comes to all. I'm giving Wife my username and password and She can do with it what She will , I won't be in any position to interfere. It's making me think stop collecting ...but deals is deals.I've about 20 small sets but trying to do 1 per month to slow the takeover. I've never bought a large set -50euro and over, but I've been given about 5 ,love is turning to strongly like lego so hope the love doesn't further decrease

gratefulnat

I wouldn't call it morbid, just a natural side affect of living. Death has become a topic in western civilization that is deemed... 'wrong', 'to be avoided', 'at all costs just not that', but truth of the matter it's the most natural final occurrence in each and everyone's life.

I'm not saying I look forward to it, but once I'm there I really hope to have planned enough in advance that my son, or any other family members, don't need to deal with tedious details that I can resolve in advance.

This includes exact documentation of, in this case, my rather large LEGO collection, it's worth, it's condition, and so on and so forth.

My son tells me forget it, he'll just sell it for the best offer, say $5K for 1800+ sets...

Won't bother me if that's the case :)

Maybe one of you will get lucky!

catwrangler

Seems like a good idea to at least leave our heirs with documentation of the best places to sell, and some basics about the pros and cons of bulk lot vs. sorting (if we didn't leave it sorted by set). Then it's up to them. 

We also can't rule out having to make decisions about it before we die - people tend to think about dying and leaving it to other people, but not so much about, for example, needing to move into a care facility where there'll be space for one room's worth of stuff.

When my great aunt went into a nursing home, we were sorting out a large house with nearly a century's worth of stuff so it could be sold (in the UK it's often the case that people sell their home and the proceeds go to paying for their care). The furniture alone was quite an undertaking, but several of us had the space to take in some special pieces with memories attached.

It strikes me that if she'd had a large, complex lifetime collection of anything like stamps, books or Lego, we'd have been able to rely on in-family expertise to liquidate it, but anything more esoteric/outside our own interests and we'd have been scratching our heads, to say nothing of figuring out how to accommodate it given the house was being sold. 

CCC

I'm not planning on dying. I bought one of these and give it a lick every day. It has worked so far.

Fizyx

CCC said:

I'm not planning on dying. I bought one of these and give it a lick every day. It has worked so far.

You don't have to lie to us, we already know you're really doing it cause you have a crush on Barbossa.

Blockwork_Orange

Saw this article on the CBC news this morning and thought is was a bit relevant.  

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1994282563982

Marshallmario

Nice video! Wow would that be a ton of work for his daughter to sell.

scottdd2

It is a question I've thought about too, the kids may or may not want it, do I donate it to a children's hospital (probably too much for them) or get it sold? I know one thing I'm getting buried with a classic 2x4 red brick imbedded in me somewhere.

Lo1sJess

@scotty12 perhaps just held in hand ready to be used….embedded is a bit cringe worthy😃

Fizyx

Lo1sJess said:

@scotty12 perhaps just held in hand ready to be used….embedded is a bit cringe worthy😃

No no, I want that sucker planted right between my eyes, with more lodged into my outstretched, grasping hands, like they had been fired out of a cannon at me.  Bonus points if I'm also surrounded/stuck with LEGO recreations of swords/spears/other weapons.  Really give future archeologists something to argue about, you know?

Edit:  Look, there's nothing wrong with me, okay?  I have NO IDEA what you're talking about.

karmajay

I have a lot of life insurance through my work that should set up my spouse quite well. She likes Lego also but if she needed space I would probably just request all of the extra get put into storage in case my grand kids get interested in it. I did not get super into Lego until 2013 when I was almost 40 so it would be nice to have the sets available if the same thing happens with them. :) (I guess maybe my kids could have some but the grand kids are much more important! ;) )