Have you included instruments in your will?

[Doug W]

My wife and I will really get around to writing wills this year-I mean it! I will be 70 next year so it is about time. I was wondering how many out there have specified where your ukes, mandolins, guitars, dulcimers, trumpets, tubas, etc. are going after you take the big leap.

Have any of you gotten really specific saying my Kamaka goes to Jenny and my Martin D28 to Melvin?

 

[rhiggie]

My wife and I will really get around to writing wills this year-I mean it! I will be 70 next year so it is about time. I was wondering how many out there have specified where your ukes, mandolins, guitars, dulcimers, trumpets, tubas, etc. are going after you take the big leap.

Have any of you gotten really specific saying my Kamaka goes to Jenny and my Martin D28 to Melvin?

I have a few of my special ukes going to special people, not in my will but written up. Also instructions to let a good friend sell the others and keep 25% of the proceeds. I know you've heard "my greatest fear is my wife sells all my ukes for what I told her I paid for them!"

 

[Cadia]

I have not, yet, but I've thought about it.

 

[clear]

My wife and I will really get around to writing wills this year-I mean it! I will be 70 next year so it is about time. I was wondering how many out there have specified where your ukes, mandolins, guitars, dulcimers, trumpets, tubas, etc. are going after you take the big leap.

Have any of you gotten really specific saying my Kamaka goes to Jenny and my Martin D28 to Melvin?

I think if you know people who'll definitely enjoy them, then willing the instruments to them is a very nice gesture. Those instruments then become more meaninful to the recipients than just their monetary values.

As for me, if I had a will (I don't have one since most assets have been taken care of), I can't think of anybody who'd want any of my instruments. I'd feel that I'm burdening them by willing my instruments. I mean, what should they do with the instruments? If they are passed down specifically to somebody, they hold sentimental value and can't be lightly disposed of.

 

[besley]

Remember one of the most important points of Gear Acquisition Syndrome. And that is to leave instructions to your spouse after your death telling him/her what your instruments are actually worth, NOT what you paid for them.

 

[ukudancer]

I honestly like the idea of my instruments going to someone who wants to learn how to play music. Heck, I've already given one of my ukes away this year.

 

[VegasGeorge]

I was discussing this same subject just today with another forum member. It's tough to decide what to do with the Ukes. I don't think there's anyone in my family who would want them. So, then what? I'll probably have 100 or so instruments by the time I die, and I would be guessing at a total acquisition cost of $75,000 plus. I guess it would make sense for my collection to be sold, but how to go about it? Guys like me want to build up their own collection, not just buy someone else's. Only a Uke enthusiast would know what they're worth. Where would my Executor find one of those? It's a real conundrum.

 

[rainbow21]

So I may have a few ukes worth a few thousand (unless I get a Moore Bettah sometime). I have bicycles worth that. I have camera gear worth that... along with cars, electronics and other items. I will not specify how it is disbursed since I will not really mind what they do with any of it. Just need to make sure they know how to divide the property and hope that nothing that comes from my wife or me leads to any strife with our kids.

A quick story: when my cousin's mother in law passed maybe two decades ago, she had a lot of "valued goods including furniture, china, and maybe five full length fur coats (mink probably). Well, maybe she paid over $100k for those coats, but no one (including donations sites) wanted them with PETA being active. They finally put the coats into the dumpster with a lot of other valuable items.

 

[Voran]

Oh man. I'm 31 so short of a road accident or a major mess up while I'm out hiking on uneven terrain...not an issue...but now you mention it...

I don't think I want anyone touching my ukes after my death. MAYBE I'd gift them to some musicians who I know will use them and treat them with care and respect, I guess.

 

[Down Up Dick]

It does seem kinda silly actually. If I‘m dead, what difference will it make to me what happens to my instruments? BUT . . . dealing with their disposal will put a big burden on my wife, and I don’t want that. I worry about the problem all the time. And ya never know when you’re gonna go, so, if ya get rid of them now, ya might hafta live five or six years without them.

I guess, like some of our problems, it’ll just hafta take of itself. Or maybe, I‘ll think of something better to do about it.

 

[Graham Greenbag]

The question is relevant to someone I know, a friend of very long standing who is in poor health. For his music making hobby he has some nice instruments, probably nothing particularly expensive, that he has acquired over some decades. None of his family play those instruments so who they might be left to I don’t know. In reality his biggest asset (after home and savings) is by far his car and that will probably go to a dealer at some knock down price.

There we have it really. By all means gift instruments to friends before or after your death but otherwise anything of value is best sold by you or with your input before death. The alternative is that your possessions will be house cleared and the end result will be some small amount for your estate instead of what might have been achieved with a more managed process. There’s also a danger that some stuff will go for landfill when really it could have been useful to someone else instead. It’s not always possible but IMHO it’s best to leave your inheritors the least hassle and biggest estate practical - but all things are a trade-off.

With regard to instruments I tend not to play anything particularly expensive and usually manage to extract a reasonable enough sound from what I have. By themselves even the best instruments don’t sound good, it’s the skill of the player that counts and I hope to play better and at least reasonably well in what time I have left.

TLDR: sort a plan out before you die - telling other folk what it is would be a good idea too.

 

[Luke Plays Uke]

My will says that my mom gets a guitar that she bought me when I was a kid, but everything goes to my wife to be given to people who want it or sold. I don’t want to burden anyone with extra stuff.

Except that I’ll have a manual typewriter for all of my immediate family. That’s the only deliberate thing.

 

[mikelz777]

The only reason I could see of ever specifically mentioning ukes in my will is if they were of great value leading to potential fights for them or if a certain family member had an emotional attachment to one of them. I currently have 7 and with cases and such, I'm probably all-in for about $2500 and that would be the brand-new value. If they worked at it, they'd get maybe half that? As far as my family goes, they couldn't care less about my ukes and since I'd be dead, I couldn't care less either.

 

[ripock]

Answer: no. If I could have a Viking funeral, I'd take them with me. Barring that, what do I care happens to material objects once I become immaterial?

 

[Down Up Dick]

Yeah, ripock, I mostly agree — sorta agree, but I’m still gonna agonize about It.

 

[ripock]

I wonder what intervals a harp has.

 

[rustydusty]

Answer: no. If I could have a Viking funeral, I'd take them with me. Barring that, what do I care happens to material objects once I become immaterial?

At one time I had a 46' custom built wooden sailboat that I told some friends would be my funeral pyre when I passed. They informed me that I would be out being toasted in my dinghy while they cruised back to the dock on my sailboat!

 

[Cadia]

At one time I had a 46' custom built wooden sailboat that I told some friends would be my funeral pyre when I passed. They informed me that I would be out being toasted in my dinghy while they cruised back to the dock on my sailboat! View attachment 137560

Good plan on their part!

 

[Doug W]

Good responses. We have given ukes to each of our 4 kids plus my daughter-in-law and grandchild. Two of my kids play instruments on a regular basis and the others don't have much interest in the ukes or guitars which is fine.

After my grandfather passed away, we met our cousins on the farm and we went around in a circle and picked things of his, none of which was extremely valuable. We got some nifty arrowheads and a Sears and Roebuck violin and guitar.

I think we may let the kids choose instruments they want first. That would probably leave a number of leftover ukuleles. I would like to see the ukes go to one of the organizations that gives ukes to kids in hospitals or send them to a local uke group to distribute. Might be less likely that they would spend eternity in a garage that way.

 

[Down Up Dick]

Ripock, it depends on the harp.