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I have no children and am not close to my siblings (so don't have any desire to leave anything to them, except for the childhood photo albums and other family memories stuff that I have in my possession).
It easy to set it up so that any cash/investments would go to certain charities, but I can't figure out what to do with personal possessions such as car, furniture, kitchen appliances, dishes, etc.
Could these go to a charity as well? I don't think any of my friends would want them or need them.
...but I can't figure out what to do with personal possessions...
Unless you're one of those secret millionaires... what you do really won't matter.
Being too specific (beyond the hard assets) may create more problems than it solves.
The one thing to do in this regard is appoint someone you trust to be your executor.
Ideally someone who understands your intentions and will honor them
who will you name as executor? if it is someone whose judgement you trust you could always have your executor make the decisions based on certain criteria, something close to your heart?
Perhaps....a single woman just leaving a homeless shelter starting life again
A cancer survivor who lost many assests by going thru the long battle?
A family living on the edge?
A animal rescue person who dedicates time and money to this cause but has a very modest income
A volunteer in the community with very limited resources...
Personally, I kind of believe in family and unless someone in my family had seriously wronged me I just feel there is a certain logic, or birthright, from us having a family connection. But these are personal decisions....
I have heard of situations where after someone passes away their executor gives all of the furnishings of the house to a charity like a Habitat for Humanity 're-store' or the like. I would imagine that you can specify this to be done in your will, and that way you could be more certain it gets carried out rather than just telling your executor what to do. You might contact the charity beforehand to make sure they'd want the items or to see if they have any additional paperwork that should be on file with your will just in case.
It's a good question. My husband and I are relatively young (30s) with no children. Right now, our wills have our money going to charity and our parents, as well as our personal belongings. We have a few antiques from our families (china, furniture, jewelry). I think we will try to select cousins (our siblings would hock them), but if there is no one that seems interested, we will look for historical societies. I have done a lot of work on our genealogies, and I have a amassed a small library of historical information. I think I would look into donating that to a historical society or library. Everything else - tvs, sofas, beds - can be sold or donated as far as I'm concerned.
Choosing an executor can be difficult though. It is for us. Outside of our parents, we don't trust anyone else. A lawyer is probably the best bet in our case, though it will eat up some of the assets.
Go and talk to local charities. Some small groups may be happy for you to leave them every single little item. They would have volunteers who could hold a yard sale and the money from that would be quite welcome.
Then get a will made leaving everything to them. Place the original will in a safe deposit box along with a list of all your bank and investment accounts. Life insurance if any, company name, address, and amount of insurance.
Also leave a similar list somewhere in your house. Place a note in your wallet, that in case of death, to notify that charity. Also say where the safe deposit box is and where the information is in your house.
Might want to provide the charity with some of this information.
Note relatives have been known to come into a house and destroy wills and paperwork which is leaving things to anyone other than themselves. The safe deposit box assures this will not happen.
Also if you want to be just cremated and no funeral or whatever, pay for and make these arrangements in advance. Tell the charity what to do with your ashes. Then the good part of this is you can leave a note in your wallet to take your body there upon death. Then you can direct the funeral home in advance who to notify (like the charity so they can get to your house before the relatives).
Might want to check out Give Back.Org, you can set up your own charity. I also have no children, have a will, some goes to my brother, the rest to charities of my choice. My pets also have an allocation/trust for their well-being.
When my Grandpa died, everything went to my Dad, however, we all got to take some things that we wanted, etc. We had a lot of stuff that no one wanted that was still in great shape, just no way to get it home, etc. Part way through the process of cleaning out his house we got a call from a woman at his church. She was somewhat embarrassed to call but told us that the church was having an auction and if we wanted to donate anything they would gladly pick it up. We JUMPED at the chance. He was very active in his church and his things raised over 10,000 for the church . There are plenty of places that would be more than happy to take your things. I know that many women's shelters especially are hungry for household goods as they try to set women up in new homes and usually all they have is the clothing on their backs when they arrive.
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