Difficult situation with beneficiaries. How to divide moveable assets?

Tartanbuggy

I wonder if anybody has any good ideas for methods of dividing the moveable assets of an estate between beneficiaries who are at loggerheads?

I am executor of the estate (mother's) and the process so far has led to great bitterness and resentment between the beneficiaries; some of them are not happy and will not talk to each other and are definitely not going to accommodate each other.

The situation now is that the moveable assets, ie furniture, car, paintings, etc, in the estate have to be split between the beneficiaries and there is absolutely no chance that they will come together to discuss and agree matters. There are some items, eg, the car, some furniture, a painting or two that I know will be wanted by two or more of them.

Can anybody recommend a "remote" solution, eg, some sort of ticklist, lottery, anything in fact that might help me to sort matters out.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide in what has become a thoroughly upsetting and miserable situation.

ariba10

Sell them all off, then divide the monies equally.

dzug1

Invite them to put bids in for the items they want. What they pay goes into the estate and gets divided up normally


If they are not willing to do so the only solution is to sell them and divide up the cash

Gingernutty

Agree with ariba10.

If they can't agree and remain childishly obstinate, sell the entire lot and divide up the proceeds equally.

Lyncroft

I'm having the same thing. It's been quite dispiriting really and sad to say I've seen family members in a different light which is so depressing after so many years.

I'm a beneficiary with another and there are 3 executors. What we did was give every item a number. The idea was we would take turns to choose an item. The order of choosing was dictated by a numbers put in a hat and then drawn out, eg, 1,3,5,4,2 would be round 1, then 3,5,4,2,1 round 2, 5,4,2,1,3 for round 3 and so on till 5 rounds had been done. Then draw again.

There are probably variations of this on the web. My father had so much stuff it went on for months.

Devon_Sailor

Sell the items via a local auctioneer - direct all the "competing" beneficiaries to the sale date, venue and catalogue, and let them slug it out in a completely above board and fair manner.

I used to be an auctioneer and came across this situation many times. You are doing your job as an executor fairly (attempting to obtain maximum benefit to the 'estate'), whilst removing any accusation of bias or unfair division of the assets. Its there - if they really want it (rather than just kick up a stink to try and get one over a fellow family member) they will put their money where their mouth is.

Regards
DS

martinthebandit

Devon_Sailor wrote: »

Sell the items via a local auctioneer - direct all the "competing" beneficiaries to the sale date, venue and catalogue, and let them slug it out in a completely above board and fair manner.

I used to be an auctioneer and came across this situation many times. You are doing your job as an executor fairly (attempting to obtain maximum benefit to the 'estate'), whilst removing any accusation of bias or unfair division of the assets. Its there - if they really want it (rather than just kick up a stink to try and get one over a fellow family member) they will put their money where their mouth is.

Regards
DS

That seems like a very sensible and fair solution.

dktreesea

You might be better off, with the bigger items, like the car, selling them privately rather than at auction. You don't always get good prices at auction.

Say someone wants the car. So you go onto a site like Glass Auto and it says the market value for that particular car is £10,000. Say there are four beneficiaries, and two of them want the car.

So - they can put their share of the car, so £2,500, towards the purchase, pay the estate £7,500 and thus buy the car.

So the estate would then show a £10k proceeds, of which £2500 had already been paid out. Pay out the remaining £7,500 to the three other beneficiaries.

In the event the beneficiaries that want the car can't raise the required finance, sell it on the open market for as close to the Glass Auto valuation (or higher) as you can get, and divide up the proceeds as per the will.

Get the furniture and other important items, like paintings, valued by the appropriate experts, then, if people want particular items they can buy them from the estate at the valuation.

TomEdpost

Sorry for your loss and the distress this must be causing. I don't want to worry you but please do remember that an Executor can be personally liable for any errors made in settling an estate, so if you allow, say, a painting to go to one beneficiary (unless that gift is stated in the will) and another beneficiary says it was worth millions and that you have given away an "unfair" share of the estate, it could rebound on you ...even though you are only trying to help. I would suggest you take the advice and get a valuer to come in and itemise and value very item (they will charge for this if you do not then go to auction but it could be well worth it). You will then have a total estimated value and can work out what share each beneficiary is entitled to.Then notify all the beneficiaries of the list and the values and ask them to "bid" for the items they want. Any items where they are the only bidder and the total of their bids comes within the amount they are due, can be transferred to them as part of their inheritance. Where there are no bidders, the item is sold and any proceeds added to the estate and distributed. Any items where there are two or more bidders, then you can run a 'private auction' between them ...but keep records of every bid and have a witness ..or just put them in a public auction and let the beneficiaries bid if they really want the stuff. This is a lot of hassle compared with just selling it all and doling out the proceeds ..but if some items do have genuine personal meaning for the beneficiaries, then just selling them off can mean their bitterness lasts for years. This is not easy for you and you may need to take professional advice ...but do protect yourself first. Hope it goes well for you.

PasturesNew

EVERYBODY has to be there:

Go round and decide a value for each one. Then give them all a pack of coloured cards and tell them to write their name on the cards and put a card on the things they want.

Then add up the values of how much each person wants.....

And after that do "swapsies" etc until you end up with a list of stuff agreed by everybody.

And everybody has to come and not leave until it's all agreed.

There are things nobody wants (sell those and it becomes a pile of cash, which can be used to square up the values).

Then most people get most of what they want - and everybody has a similar value.

You could do this remotely ... but it could rumble on for months without a face to face stand off.

g6jns_2

Tartanbuggy wrote: »

I wonder if anybody has any good ideas for methods of dividing the moveable assets of an estate between beneficiaries who are at loggerheads?

I am executor of the estate (mother's) and the process so far has led to great bitterness and resentment between the beneficiaries; some of them are not happy and will not talk to each other and are definitely not going to accommodate each other.

The situation now is that the moveable assets, ie furniture, car, paintings, etc, in the estate have to be split between the beneficiaries and there is absolutely no chance that they will come together to discuss and agree matters. There are some items, eg, the car, some furniture, a painting or two that I know will be wanted by two or more of them.

Can anybody recommend a "remote" solution, eg, some sort of ticklist, lottery, anything in fact that might help me to sort matters out.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide in what has become a thoroughly upsetting and miserable situation.

Put the whole lot up for auction and divide the proceeds. They can bid for what they want. Make sure they don't start stealing the items.