Death, Inheritance and tools..a morbid subject

[Escudo]

I am presently updating my will.

My thoughts turned to my shed (forget the house and contents) and the value of all my tools. What would become of them?

If I met my demise would the missus know the true value? I doubt it. My executors would understanably over look this issue, probably deeming it insignificant.

I suspect they would be sold at undervalue to some lucky devil. How many of us have landed on such a scoop?

I wonder how many of us have, over the years built up quite a valuable collection of items - how can we protect this value for our family / widow ?

I have told the old girl that the tools are valuable and she should ensure that she takes advice before selling, perhaps via this forum?

My son is too small to appreciate or be able to make use of the tools now but ideally they would pass to him when he is older. In the meantime this is an issue.

Am I alone in having these difficult thoughts?

Esc.

 

[RogerS]

No, you're not, Escudo. My wife raised the same question with me!

I think that the forum is the best way to go provided, of course, that your wife knows who to contact. The difficulty is in deciding who that contact should be. Some forum members do meet up outside the web and I guess that, in their case, they are the logical choice for widows to talk the problem through with. Maybe we should have a sort of buddy scheme or encourage members to meet up face-to-face outside the forum?

 

[DomValente]

Good idea Esc.
After reading the fingers post and yours I've cheered up no end :?

Dom

 

[woodbloke]

Esc - when I finally shuffle, all my stuff will go to my son, trouble is he hasn't a clue what to do with all the gear.
I beleive tho' that in years gone by, when a cabinetmaker died the tradition was that his widow auctioned off his tools amongst his fellow makers thus killing two oiseaux with one stone...his widow recieved some money and also ensured that his tools stayed within the trade and were put to good use by those who knew how to use them.
I wonder if Scrit has heard of this custom? - Rob

 

[houtslager]

Well I have and iirc its still carried out here in Germany /Austria , otherwise it generally goes to the deceased' s kids, but like with the kids in the UK the kids here want to be in IT or another " clean " job :?

 

[Dave_G]

Hi,

Call me a sad old sod - but after my shop was broken in to, with only minor damage sustained. What I found was very helpful for the insurance company was my rather detailed spreadsheet listing all my tools and equipment, purchase price and date purchased. Not all details were complete, but most were.

I maintain my list of almost all items I have purchased over the years. I also keep an inventory of the materials I have in stock for up and coming projects.

My wife knows where to find the list and knows the value of my shop!

I would hope one or either of my sons will use the tools one day, but if they don't and I'm not around my wife will have a good idea how much my stuff is worth.

Cheers,

Dave

 

[TonyW]

What I found was very helpful for the insurance company was my rather detailed spreadsheet listing all my tools and equipment, purchase price and date purchased.
Dave

This is an excellent idea. Having briefly worked for an insurance company in my youth I had to deal with a number of claims, one of which still sticks in my mind. A builder had his van broken into and a large number of tools were stolen. He provided a list along the lines of hammer, Saws, drills etc. and attached a claim to the value of £500 - he did not have a full inventory and suspected items not accounted for. On receiving the claim my company advised me that they were only prepared to pay a small fraction of the claim (from memory £100 approx). The reason was that they had priced the individual items and you could buy a new saw for £1.50 a hammer for £1 etc. etc. I had to go and see the chap and tell him the news!! To put it mildly he was upset. In this case there was a happy ending - I advised him to fully specify items lost including manufacturers name purchase price age and cost of replacement. The result was a claim for a higher amount than the original estimate - one happy customer - one unhappy insurance company.

Only downside - you may find that you are under insured and have to pay additional premium.

Cheers
Tony

 

[woodbutcher]

my ex working partner died two weeks ago and i have the task of going through his tools and disposing of same (will post a list later ) but i agree that in the event of ones demise that those left behind have a task on there hands and anything that can be done now can save a lot of head scratching for some one not to mention the costs involved.


woodbutcher

 

[OLD]

I use microsoft money program to keep track of all things financial and it has a inventory feature which you can use for all your stuff with price paid replacement and value now ,you can list all your tools and do a print out each year after updates, good for insurance info and records. As you would expect with these applications it will provide lots of lists and values etc you can import photos as well

 

[Steve Maskery]

My workshop is at my home, a tandem garage attached to the house (although access is from outside).

A couple of years ago I had a claim. A cupboard full of screws, nuts and bolts and other heavy stuff fell off the wall and landed on my P/T. I wanted an engineer to come and set it up again, but they insisted on a brand new machine instead!

There was absolutely no hassle and it was dealt with in exactly the way I would have hoped.

We were insure with Alliance & Leicester (with whom we had our mortgage at the time), but I think it's now been transferred to Zurich.

The other good thing is that it is a policy in which we cannot be under-insured.

The downside is that it is £$%^&* EXPENSIVE! IIRC we were paying £600 pa then, and I think it's closer to 1K now. That's for the house as well, of course! Even so, it strikes me as a lot. I intended to shop around at Christmas this year, but I think I forgot.

I recommend it as a policy, it's just a high price.

Cheers
Steve

 

[greybeard]

Keeping sound up-to-date and detailed records is a good start - it wasn't until I did that for the household stuff that I realised just how underinsured I was. (One of my other interests is books - if you reckon woodworking tools is a slippery slope.....don't even think about books! You think I'm kidding?! - there are literally thousands of books out there on every imaginable topic! Me obsessed? - of course not, just a sucker for a real bargain!)

And it mustn't be a once-in-a-blue-moon thing either - at least annually is good.

And then of course you need a copy of the latest inventory secured off-site (send it to parents/brother/sister/friend, even children!).

As for the inheritance thing, .....that's a real can of worms I reckon. Most of us will probably spin furiously in our graves if we find out what actually happens to our pride and joy!! Best we can hope for is for at least other halves are aware of the potential value. Unless kids are definitely interested then it's probably a lost cause as far as they're concerned.
Still, given the obscene values of houses these days, there probably ain't going to be much interest in those 'rusty old fellers tools', or his 'dusty old books' either!