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End of life

stneki

Well Known Member
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With more and more of my friends passing on I have been thinking of how I should instruct my wife or remaining family on the handling of the sale of my RV7A if I should unexpectedly go West. Any suggestions?
 
With more and more of my friends passing on I have been thinking of how I should instruct my wife or remaining family on the handling of the sale of my RV7A if I should unexpectedly go West. Any suggestions?

I'll take care of it for you. ;)
 
With more and more of my friends passing on I have been thinking of how I should instruct my wife or remaining family on the handling of the sale of my RV7A if I should unexpectedly go West. Any suggestions?

Well, since I am worth more dead than alive, my wife won't need the money when I go. She doesn't want to go through the hassle of selling my 7 so I told her to donate it to a worthy cause like EAA, COPA, an aviation college or whatever she wanted. The guys at the airport are very willing to help her out.

We had one of our club members pass last year leaving a hangar and an 80 percent complete RV7A. Some of us have been completing the plane so she could see it fly and have an easier time selling it. The plane is almost complete and is already sold, along with the hangar, with the agreement we will finish it to final inspection.

If your airport is like ours there are many willing to help out in times of crisis.

Al
 
Passing on

Having been involved in estates handling planes, I recommend that each owner should check out a trusted friend who could stay current in order to demo and deliver the rv just in case. He should be on the insurance policy and be familiar with equipment and how you do things

A box of logbooks and manuals should be clearly labeled goes with plane
Spouse should know where it is

Obtain and fill out faa registration procedures for an eventual transfer,
. Put it in files for spouse
 
Obtain and fill out faa registration procedures for an eventual transfer,
. Put it in files for spouse

Having helped someone with this before, IIRC, there was an extra piece of paper needed from Probate court, showing the spouse now has full ownership over property formerly in her husband's name.
 
Having helped someone with this before, IIRC, there was an extra piece of paper needed from Probate court, showing the spouse now has full ownership over property formerly in her husband's name.

Create a revocable trust, have the plane owned by the trust, and there is no probate. The successor trustee disposes of the plane with no lawyers or courts involved.

All my assets are owned by my trust. When I go, my sister disperses assets per the instructions in the trust. If there is no particular instruction, she uses her own best judgement based on her knowledge of my wishes.

YMMV....
 
Create a revocable trust, have the plane owned by the trust, and there is no probate. The successor trustee disposes of the plane with no lawyers or courts involved.

All my assets are owned by my trust. When I go, my sister disperses assets per the instructions in the trust. If there is no particular instruction, she uses her own best judgement based on her knowledge of my wishes.

YMMV....
This is what I did but, since the Trustee knows nothing about aircraft or how to dispose of one, also provided the Trustee a contact in my local EAA Chapter and another friend or two who were "aviation smart". Hopefully, that would give them a bit of a leg up in dealing with something they knew nothing about.
 
Curious is the OP meant liability issues? Assuming he?s the builder.

Some people dismantle because of this but I can?t imagine anything would hold up in court.
 
A while back a guy at the local airport died unexpectedly. His wife wasn't really into that aspect of his life, and a month later (without knowing any better) she poked around on the internet and found one of those "we buy airplanes!" guys who happily paid her $20k less than his really nice Bonanza was worth. The first we knew about it was when she showed up at the airport to let the ferry pilot into the hanger. As he taxied away she knew she had made a mistake but it was too late. It wasn't the end of the world, but we all felt bad for her. Any one of us would have gladly helped.

Sooo....If I were you I would let my wife know of a couple trusted friends who could handle the sale should it come to that. (My wife knows who to call.) If I didn't want to burden a friend, I would set something up with a trusted broker.

DEM
 
I keep an updated spreadsheet with the value of all of my assets. It is a document which is shared with my wife.

For the airplanes, the spreadsheet has an estimate of the "market value" and an estimate of the "sell quick" value. The sell quick value is important in that as long as you're "sitting" on an airplane, it is costing you money in hangar rent, taxes, insurance, and possibly depreciation because people worry about the condition of an airplane that has been sitting.

The Mrs. also knows several of my airplane friends who would gladly help her market/sell an airplane and some projects if something were to happen to me.
 
Actually received draft copy of the joint revocable trust we are setting up yesterday. Wife and next in line in the trust know plenty of contacts at my airport with aircraft buying/selling experience. Wife asked a few weeks ago who at the airport she should contact for the RV. I gave her some specific names, all which she knows very well. Nice that she is involved in my flying and airport friends. She will have no issues with the RV. Another advantage of having her involved in MY hobby.
 
...A box of logbooks and manuals should be clearly labeled goes with plane...Spouse should know where it is
Obtain and fill out faa registration procedures for an eventual transfer. Put it in files for spouse

Excellent point Vern. I sold a beautiful PT-22 in 2002. The new owner passed several years later so the airplane became part of an estate sale. The family could not locate the logbooks. I was contacted by the next buyer for information about the aircraft to start a new set of logs. I don't know what the selling price of the airplane was, but not having logs definitely devalues the sales price of the airplane.

Regards,
 
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Lie

The FAA wants a copy of the entire trust document, not just the certification that satisfies most institutions. No way in HE-double-L was I going to divulge our personal trust to bureaucrats. The trust "Pours over" assets into the trust not specifically titled to the trust, so surviving or successor trustees can manipulate the assets as trust property. Talk it over with your counsel. I would imagine the FAA would make selling a trust-titled aircraft a PITA as well.

As to the FAA, both aircraft are in my name. It's the easiest way to buy and sell an aircraft. If it comes to it, my wife knows to sign the 8050-2 in my stead. Know one else needs to know. Shoot, shovel, and shut up.
 
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I agree. I have had a family trust for a couple of decades,
and often putting vehicle ownership under the trust just complicates things constantly, and actually serves no purpose. The wife owns the plane under the "pour over will" anyhow, and can do anything with it.

The FAA wants a copy of the entire trust document, not just the certification that satisfies most institutions. No way in HE-double-L was I going to divulge our personal trust to bureaucrats. The trust "Pours over" assets into the trust not specifically titled to the trust, so surviving or successor trustees can manipulate the assets as trust property. Talk it over with your counsel. I would imagine the FAA would make selling a trust-titled aircraft a PITA as well.

As to the FAA, both aircraft are in my name. It's the easiest way to buy and sell an aircraft. If it comes to it, my wife knows to sign the 8050-2 in my stead. Know one else needs to know. Shoot, shovel, and shut up.
 
I put in my will that either of my boys could keep and continue with my RV-7, and I also put in there that they could contact my EAA chapter for help with disposal of the airplane.
 
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