Best way to handle an Estate collection

[Knotwild]

This stuff varies from state to state. Take a few minutes to contact someone who knows what to do in her state. I have an appointment right now for the week after Christmas to speak to someone who is qualified to assist me in my mother's estate. If you don't like lawyers try a good accountant. There are too many variables and the implications are too great for this to be decided in a forum.

 

[rjtfroggy]

I went through an estate settlement in May. My mother's no real property just bank accounts. My sister and I had joint POA's, but I handled the money for the last 6 years. When she passed, I paid all remaining bills and when the checks cleared, I closed out all of her accounts and I had the bank write 2 checks 50/50 both in my sister and my name, DONE. Or so I thought one account left open that had my sisters name on it, a CD that comes do on the 29th let's see how that gets handled. Also received a check for a refund from nursing home, it came made out to" the estate of" no banks would cash so I broke down and called the lawyer 1k$ later she said I needed to open probate so I could cash it. Cost to open probate $1225 plus more lawyer fees, amount of check $1800 said no way. After about 2 months I got the nursing home to re issue the check in my name, also split 50/50.
All the grand children got their CD's and savings bonds when she first got sick and were told to cash them so there would be no hassles when the time came. It took one niece 2 years to accomplish the very hard chore of going to the bank.
Now it is tax time and I already told them I am not filing anything for my mother's accounts. We will see what happens.
This doesn't help the OP and I probably skirted some laws here in Ct.

 

[Rick300]

I'm not an attorney and I don't play one on TV, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night. But.......if it were me, I would get those firearms out of Kali immediately if not sooner

 

[clams243]

POA move items to Fla. keep them out of the will, get them valued and put on consignment in Fla, trusted
gun shop. Good Luck

 

[David Milisock]

A friend asked me and I do not have a good answer, so thought I would ask for some advise here.

My friends father-in-law has been in ICU for a week and not likely to survive more than about another week.
His my friends wife is the executor of the estate/trust.

The gun collection is in California, but they live in Florida.
She has be directed to sell the collection and divide the money among the siblings.

How should/could this be handled?
Can they just load them up in a truck and drive them to Florida. And if so, can my friends sell them from Florida?
From what I understand, there is about 80 - 100 firearms

Any help/advise would be appreciated.

Thanks for your replies

I've done 4 of these and it's complicated by many factors, sometime legally and illegally owned (by today's standards) class 3 items. If you get authorization before death to act it's different than after death, acting for an auction/soon estate seeking to do all things above board is viewed legally quite differently than clandestine sales. That's how the 4 I steered were done.

First gatheting the items and placing them into a locked, controlled, insured environment was done, (read get them out of California and close to you to reduce your time/cost in handling) than an inventory and assessment for class 3 items needs done. Then if justified by the inventory assessment, more insurance is sought and multiple evaluations of the items financial worth are done. This assessment includes the cost of resolving the legal issues, if the inventory is worthy of it, get a lawyer who specializes in estate firearms. Sometimes moving to an insured auction house for storage needs done. I simply point the executor toward the right people and stay away, it makes the future easier.

Of the 4 I did in 1 estate it was said that it was a great collection, it was, not, 150 hard used not so well maintained field grade rifles. Still, over $50,000 in firearms.

Two were small but interesting collections, 1 had 2 class 3 items but in the end both had over $150,000 each in nicely maintained collectable and field grade firearms.

The last 1 was a small collection that was brought to my attention by the widow of an old friend I had served with, her late husband left her a note to reach out to me when he died about the firearms. Her minister who was a gun collector had offered her $15,000 dollars for the entire collectionand she was poised to sell when she found the note. I looked at the collection and immediately put her in touch with 3 different people to assess the collection, a firearm attorney and an auction house that specialized in private firearm auctions. It turned out that there were 2 old western revolvers, and a dozen properly owned class 3 WWII firearms all with great providence. A small but a 1.65 million dollar collection.

You never know what you'll see in a collection so making good choices both legally and morally make life easier. Good luck. I personally will giving all mine away before I kick the bucket.

 

[okie]

My friend has done work as a courier---the company specializes in moving collections in and out such states.
I know they will charge you. I can put you in contact with them. They are well versed in differing state laws.
My gut feeling is that you should get them out of CA asap.

 

[TTE]

Thanks for your replies.

I will rely to him -

1 - Get permission from her father to move the collection to Florida

2 - Contact the Trust Attorney for advise

3 - Get the collection out of California ASAP (pending what the Attorney says)

4 - Once the collection is in Florida, they can decide if Gunbroker/Auction House/Local Gun Shop is an option

If I am missing something, please reply.

Thanks again to all for your advise

 

[Walt Krafft]

To move the collection from kali to Florida, shipping it by common carrier could get quite expensive. It would easily pay for a road trip.

 

[David Milisock]

Thanks for your replies.

I will rely to him -

1 - Get permission from her father to move the collection to Florida

2 - Contact the Trust Attorney for advise

3 - Get the collection out of California ASAP (pending what the Attorney says)

4 - Once the collection is in Florida, they can decide if Gunbroker/Auction House/Local Gun Shop is an option

If I am missing something, please reply.

Thanks again to all for your advise

Use your judgement but have a couple people with gun knowledge that YOU TRUST give you opinions on values, if you want to and then who should auction the firearms.

I met with a person about 3 months ago about firearms her father had and if you get into her situation, it can get sticky. It appears that 65 years ago Dad had received a few class three firearms from a weapons depot and they're possibly unregistered but quite possibly have other legal issues. Make sure you stay on the straight and narrow when dealing with firearms. Straight to secure safe, a lawyer and insurance, the statute of limitations has run out for sure if they were obtained illegally but they're unregistered that's a bag of worms for legal professionals.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Use your judgement but have a couple people with gun knowledge that YOU TRUST give you opinions on values, if you want to and then who should auction the firearms.

I met with a person about 3 months ago about firearms her father had and if you get into her situation, it can get sticky. It appears that 65 years ago Dad had received a few class three firearms from a weapons depot and they're possibly unregistered but quite possibly have other legal issues. Make sure you stay on the straight and narrow when dealing with firearms. Straight to secure safe, a lawyer and insurance, the statute of limitations has run out for sure if they were obtained illegally but they're unregistered that's a bag of worms for legal professionals.

Having something illegal, especially where most everything is illegal, is my biggest concern with bringing outside folks in

 

[David Milisock]

Having something illegal, especially where most everything is illegal, is my biggest concern with bringing outside folks in

That's the issue, especially when dealing with individuals now in the nineties who acquired items at times when laws were less stringent and really have no idea that they have something illegal. Specialty lawyers make sense.