Let’s say that person x, John, dies. He makes provisions in his will for his liquid assets and real property. He has several children. They take their cut as the will dictates. One or two of the children are the executors of the will. They inevitably come across family photos, medals earned for military service, etc, etc, personal records, and so on. Several items that only have personal value, and no value on the auction block to the general public. How are these items to be disposed of? What if there is an uncivil fight over them? What if one of the heirs absconds with them and refuses to share? What if an immediate heir that takes possession is childless, and the other heir(s) have heirs of their own, yet no heirlooms in their possesion to hand down?
I would imagine the disposition of items of no monetary value is a call that is ultimately up to the executor. Even the priceless Sears-Roebuck 1930’s table lamp, assessed value $2 (garage sale) or an asset of a few hundred dollars or the family car - as long as the items were sold for true honest market value or the equivalent deducted from the beneficiary’s other (cash) payout, then arguing over who gets it is irrelevant.
An honest and strict executor might get into an auction - “who’ll give me $50 for the baby photos? Perfect for embarrassing poor Johnny here… Do I hear $100…” But really, this is one of the fun things an executor gets to decide, is to properly dispose of the estate. To add to the fun, odds are siblings who fought like cats in childhood are not going to compromise when it comes to the estate.
I think the obvious answer is that any property not bequeathed in the will, either directly or indirectly, would pass by intestate succession. The value shouldn’t matter but this may vary by jurisdiction.
I believe that’s what the executor is for, actually. It’s their call, a task assigned to them by the deceased.
Don’t think any of this matters a hoot, to be honest. The other heirs can choose to view it in any way they choose, but come down to it, the deceased left it to the executor to decide. And they did. I think it’s a done deal.
Of course it’s always possible that the task was assigned in just this way as the deceased would prefer the siblings hold a grudge against an executor rather than each other. Especially if they knew the heirs would argue over these items.
Disputes like this are why lawyers have nicer cars than I do.
If you fight, you fight. If you want to keep fighting, you lawyer up and take the other guy to court until you’ve spent several hundred times the value of the item in question on court costs and lawyer fees. I suspect the people who do this are the same ones to spend $49.50 at the crane game to win a $2 stuffed bear.
(Grandma’s dying right now…I really really hope we all keep being nice to each other. So far, so good, but…)
(IANAL) There’s either a will or there isn’t. if there is a will, then it should say what the disposition of the estate is. Is a will legal if it says “I leave my car to Fred” and says nothing about the million dollars? If the will is valid, then the executor detemines any ambiguous details, and the judge second guesses him/her if the hiers contest.
IIRC, a will usually says “my estate to be divided evenly between Fred and Sally”, rather than going item by item. Then the executor decides who gets what photos or jewelry and if they have a cash value to be counted against “evenly”.
It can be done any way that the heirs agree to, including arm-wrestling. I’ve heard of auctions. I’ve heard of people being given different colored stickers and then taking turns to mark things. I’ve heard of lottery type systems, where people draw the names or numbers of items out of a bowl. D&D players could use dice. It doesn’t matter as long as no one feels hard done by.
Yes, the executor can be arbitrary, but the executor is often one of the heirs, so getting too arbitrary can cause trouble in the long run. Fortunately, when my sisters (2) and I got together after Mom died, we sorted through things amicably. I was really impressed. We mostly agreed on what the keepers were and we mostly just wanted someone in the family to keep them, and keep the knowledge of where they came from or the story associated with them as well. Which meant that we were reminscing as we sorted. It was kind of cool.
ETA - If you think that your heirs are likely to argue, or just want specific people to have specific things, you can make a list for your executor. I’ve only recently learned that the list can be completely separate from the will. That means that you can make changes to it without fiddling with a lawyer or with outdated wills. There’s a fancy name for the list, but I don’t recall it at the moment.
My recollection from Estates and Trusts is that there is generally a catch-all clause at the end of most wills that effectively disposes of any unnamed assets via bequest or otherwise. However I’m reasonably sure that anything that is not properly disposed of in the will, or outside of probate via other means of course, will have to be awarded according to the rules of intestate succession.
I have no idea what the mechanics would be however and I’m sure that the county surrogate is not going to be troubled over trivial items like knick-knacks. So there may well be exceptions and all sorts of variations in local practice.
When my mother died she left a fair amount of jewelry and other personal effects, none of it especially costly, mostly of sentimental value. At my suggestion, my sister and I and our daughters all took turns selecting one item, starting with my sister as the eldest. Worked fine for us.
“He died intestate.”
“Ooo… sounds painful.”
I suppose ultimately, as long as nobody complains to the authorities or contests the will, the executor can handle things whowever they want. If someone complains, then the ultimate guide is the letter of the law.
I don’t believe the courts will attempt to assign tangible value to intangibles, a family photo is worth what it cost to make it - a few dollars; any sentimental value cannot be translated into a dollar figure.
I guess the other question is, if a vindictive excutor decides he’s going to burn the otherwise worthless family mementos that his brother dearly wants, would the court intervene? Would they at very least let the brother have half?
I went to an estate auction once where the guy was a geologist and rare Native American artifact collector (mostly things he found in his work). The family was in a heated argument when the auction started over who would get the best pieces and what price they would pay. Then the auctioneer started the auction with the best pieces first and they missed out so I bought three of the guys best pieces for cheap before they realized it. Was not able to purchase another piece after they joined in because they drove the bids through the roof and I almost had to fight my way to the car with the three pieces that I got.
I suppose nothing solves the problem with fairness and finality like an auction - “what’s it really worth to you?”
Note that with modern technology, it’s quite easy to make duplicate copies of old family photos (even without the negatives). I believe you can obtain replacement copies of medqls from the Armed forces. And personal records can be copied easily.
So most of these items can be copied, so each heir can have a copy for the sentimental value. of course, if the fight is really about ‘I got it, so my relatives can’t have it’ then this doesn’t matter.
I remember the death of someone related to me through marriage and while the home was formally sold, there was a lot of miscellaneous minor household stuff like hand tools and office supplies that ended up being pretty much a free for all, take what you like kind of deal. Like that stapler? It’s yours.
Thats pretty much what we did for my grandmother, with my mother, sister and Aunt (grand mothers daughter in law) all selecting pieces they liked. Some other female relatives also took some pieces.
Hee! Propose to me please. 
Too frequently heirs don’t know what they have, which is why I have an amazing art and antiques collection, 98% of which I found in the trash. For real. And most of it from my very own NYC apartment building.
If I croaked tomorrow I’d be in big trouble–well I wouldn’t be troubled anymore but the idea troubles me. The thing that troubles me is that whoever came in here wouldn’t know what the hell they were looking at.
Little Foot will be 17 in a few days. (I am slowing introducing him now as Slightly Larger Foot.) ANyway, years ago a woman retorted to my proclamation that I was saving my stuff for my kid: “WHen he grows up he won’t want your stuff.” :smack: I decided she was a wise woman.
So what to do other than tape the back of everything of real value with neon stickers and label them, say, "This is a Dutch Master Engraving’, or “This is by the guy known as the ‘American Cellini’”, or, “If you turn this rock over, asshole, you’ll see that it’s a 300 million year old fossil”, or “If you toss this I’ll haunt you.”
The ‘pros’ will lowball you. Higher end auction houses are a combination of stupid and/ or very fussy. “Decorative arts aren’t selling right now”, or, my favorite. “That’s a copy after _________'s ‘Famous One at the Met’” which is impossible because it doesn’t even look like it and a zillion other reasons.*
The problem of people throwing out valuables disturbs me greatly except when it winds up in my building’s trash area. Maybe 4 years I started chatting with a gal at the recycle area. I don’t know why. Turned out her 80+ year old mother died and she was clearing out the apartment and donating thing. Like that. I begged her to allow me to see what she was giving away so that she didn’t give anything important away. I didn’t want a thing. I wasn’t being opportunistic. I pointed out a few items of interest and no I didn’t want that China cabinet thank you.
A few days later the items of interest were in front of my door. And she was gone. Turns out she was really rich. I was happy to get the things but mostly felt sad because, well, I wanted to feel like I helped somebody. Shrug. She should of been a poorer person for that. But then, would a poorer person even allow me a look?
So how does one protect their stuff from the trash or the Salvation Army?
*I’m going to start a thread on that one.
Have a list of your valuable antiques, artwork, etc. with estimated valuations given for each item. Include this with your will. And make sure your executor (and maybe your heirs) know about the list, and the basic fact that you possess some rare & valuable items.
Such a list will also be useful for insurance.
You do have insurance riders for your rare & valuable items, right?
No special insurance at all. I’d need an appraiser who does it all huh?
Probqbly. But I dunno, 'cause I ain’t got nothing that valuable!
I’ve seen that done several times, with the variant of people drawing numbers for the picking order, or in one case, cutting a deck of cards to determine the order.