Some thoughts....

I am not a lawyer by any means, and this is not meant to be advice as much as something to think about for all of us. I have had the occasion to perform prebuys as a result of estate sales over the course of many years, and I keep seeing the same thing. The aircraft has been left in a state of disrepair sometimes for so long that the monetary value has greatly depreciated, Sometimes to less than half or more than the value at the time of death. I find it so sad for the family/spouse of the deceased. The aircraft that at one time may have been the pride and joy of the owner or family may now require lots of work and money to even make it saleable.

I know it can be a really tough time for the family, and especially the spouse, but I?ll tell you what I have told my family. If anything happens to me, sell the airplane the next day. Don?t wait. Don?t let emotions get in the way of a financial decision that most certainly have adverse consequences.

Just my thoughts.....

Vic

Estate

...and always have a friend checked out and insured who can demo/deliver it!

Vic, this is excellent advice, I've moved your thread to General for greater exposure, hope you don't mind.

My estate will be handled by a directive. That directive lists two qualified pilot neighbors and allocates $2500 for each airplane to be distributed to them for the purpose of dealing with the sale of the airplanes.
I don?t want my wife or family to have to deal with it during a time that they will have many more important things to worry about.

By the way, my attorney is the Trustee, not a family member. My wishes are handled by directive. I have seen too many families in conflict when a family memeber is the Trustee.

On 250-300 purchases, I'd say the average surviving spouse takes six months to wade through a combination of administration and loss issues.

DanH said:

On 250-300 purchases, I'd say the average surviving spouse takes six months to wade through a combination of administration and loss issues.

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I am surprised it doesn’t take longer on average.
Most of us have good friends we trust that know airplanes, and know our spouses. Mine is very well aware of the directive we have in place and the neighbors know as well. We have spoken to them before the directive went into place. They agreed and are ready to step in and assist with all things airplane so she doesn’t have to deal with it. They didn’t want any money. However, they get $2500 for each airplane for the hassle, not much, but it helps pay for advertisement, moving and storage costs if needed, meeting buyers for inspections, etc....

"Road map"

I've made what I call a road map for my wife if anything happens to me. It covers everything I could think of that she presently doesn't deal with, because I do it now. In there, I've listed several pilots, and their phone numbers to handle the plane sale. And then, I had her read it all, so at least she'd be familiar.

control said:

And make sure your relatives have an honest idea of the value, I have seen several airplanes (not experimentals) that lost all value by standing still on the apron for years because the widows would not sell for a fair prize.

The worst example was a Saratoga that at the time the owner passed away was probably worth around 60k$ but the widow expected 200k+ and believed everyone who told her otherwise was trying to trick her, after a few years it finally sold more or less like scrap for 15k

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I have seen this happen too.
Also, do your family a favor. Don't hang on to your airplane for sentimental reasons while you are still alive but unable to fly it. I personally know of four instances where guys have lost a medical or just gave up flying but couldn't bring themselves to sell the airplane. Two of them would taxi it around every now and then to keep the battery up. We all know what happened to those two. Moisture killed the engine and devalued the sale price after the owner eventually passed away and it was discovered during a pre-buy.