Do you plan on getting rid of your guns before you die?

[usmarine0352_2005]

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If you are getting up there in age and know you are closer to not ever being able to ever use your guns again do you plan on giving them away to friends/family and/or selling them?





The reason I ask is because my father had to be put into a nursing home rather abruptly because his mental health went downhill suddenly.



He owned a lot of guns and his medical care is thousands of dollars a month. We needed to sell his guns and almost everything else to take care of him. My dad was also into model trains and other stuff. Luckily we have friends who were able to hunt and fish and were able to help us liquidate all of his guns. We kept 2 for personal reasons but sadly all of the other ones had to go. He had a rather large and extensive collection. However, he hasn't shot a gun or driven in nearly 10 years because of his deteriorating health. We would have sold most of his guns awhile ago but he wouldn't have any of it and I can understand why.


My mother, brother, and I are big hunters/fisherman and love guns but we couldn't afford to keep his collection.


I can tell you though that liquidating his gun and train collection was a lot of work and it took time. If we hadn't had help from great friends it would have been much worse and we would have made much less money. I can't imagine how hard it would have been for someone who isn't a gun person to sell everything.



I know a large amount of my dad's gun collection was bought from an estate sale where the father passed away and the only son had no interest in owning guns. My dad got some very good deals from there I hear. If your kids have no interest in guns I can see why it would be different than if your kids were.




So, I think that if I get older and know I won't be living much longer I will want to give my most personal guns away to friends and family and sell the others while I know what they are worth so that my family doesn't have to go through the trouble of attempting to sell everything and judge their value after I'm gone. Unless of course my kids want all of my guns, they will get them all. I just don't see that happening for anyone though.



What about you?
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[wannabeagunsmith]

I would put it in my will, but Godwilling that is a really long way off.

 

[Rail Driver]

I plan to ensure that my children each get at least one firearm from me before/when I die. The rest of them will be sold or auctioned off.

 

[bigfatdave]

some would be passed down or gifted
I'd probably keep one rimfire and one centerfire handgun and rifle for myself

the rest could be sold once I stop enjoying them

 

[Teachu2]

I hope to pass most of my guns - and other assets - on to family members while I'm still able to enjoy the kids enjoying the assets. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN AT LEAST FIVE YEARS BEFORE I NEED LONG-TERM CARE. Why? Because if I do that, it preserves my estate so that Medicare will pay for my nursing home - and I'll get exactly the same care as if I were paying out of my estate.
I'm going through this with both parents. They cost about $75,000/year each in costs that would have been covered 100% by Medicare. That's $750,000 that could have been used by their families....and they are getting the same care in the same facilities as those with no assets get from Medicare.
We all have living trusts in place. I encourage you all to explore that, if you have assets.

 

[Shoobee]

By the time we are all feeble enough to be worthy of death, our hunting days would be over with, no matter what you are hunting, whethere game or zombies, and so you and I should have distributed or sold our rifles by then.

My shotgun is going to my nephew who is a shooter and does not have a shotgun.

My rifle is going to my other nephew who is a hunter but does not have a rifle.

The .44 revolver will go with the rifle.

And the .45ACP I will die with it under my pillow as usual.

Most old men do not plan ahead sufficiently and therefore it is common to die with a slew of firearms, and then your poor widow has to deal with them. I have seen it too many times.

It is called "in denial."

As Achilles said in The Illiad, and as Someone Else said when He was talking about to the dust thou shalt return, everyone dies, whether now or 50 years from now. Might as well get a grip on reality sooner rather than later. Nobody lives forever.

 

[forestdavegump]

My kid will get them, we share alot of them now. But I got allota miles left!

 

[usmarine0352_2005]

I hope to pass most of my guns - and other assets - on to family members while I'm still able to enjoy the kids enjoying the assets. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN AT LEAST FIVE YEARS BEFORE I NEED LONG-TERM CARE. Why? Because if I do that, it preserves my estate so that Medicare will pay for my nursing home - and I'll get exactly the same care as if I were paying out of my estate.
I'm going through this with both parents. They cost about $75,000/year each in costs that would have been covered 100% by Medicare. That's $750,000 that could have been used by their families....and they are getting the same care in the same facilities as those with no assets get from Medicare.
We all have living trusts in place. I encourage you all to explore that, if you have assets.

Wow. That's good to know. Thanks. Great info.
.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

A few years ago my wife and I talked about this. We decided to give some of them to the kids NOW, instead of leaving them.

So we wrapped up a few and made Christmas gifts out of them.

 

[Rob62]

As the end draws near for me, if I see it coming, I will be selling off most of my firearms.

Some will be given away to family and of course those that are my kid's already will remain for them. But overall I see no reason to keep a bunch of my collection and the family does not have much interest in them.

 

[Teachu2]

Most old men do not plan ahead sufficiently and therefore it is common to die with a slew of firearms, and then your poor widow has to deal with them. I have seen it too many times.

It is called "in denial."

As Achilles said in The Illiad, and as Someone Else said when He was talking about to the dust thou shalt return, everyone dies, whether now or 50 years from now. Might as well get a grip on reality sooner rather than later. Nobody lives forever.

So very true. You should see what happens when an avid model airplane guy dies! I've been disposing of my "collection" for the last nine months, and I'm about 80% of the way through what I can sell - and I've given away over a dozen.... I've converted 20+ years of acquired hobby items to cash, at reasonable prices, and then converted most of that to guns.

My wife is relieved, to say the least. She wouldn't have known where to begin. Most of what I had were collectable kits, long out of production, and hard to price unless you really know the market. Guns? She knows those well enough to find market value - but our kids shoot, so she'll pass 'em on. What they don't want (HA! - Like there will be ANY of those!) can be consigned at a local shop.

Our plan is to run out of money shortly after we are unable to enjoy it. When we can't ride our Harleys anymore, it'll be time to shelter and/or pass on assets.

Most people plan for after their death - but ignore managing the transfer of assets while they are alive. This is an expensive mistake.

 

[nosmr2]

I would prefer to pass down most to relatives. However, the number of relatives younger than me is slim. Assuming my daughter has a son or daughter that enjoys shooting I will pass them down to them. I'm 40, she's 8, so doing the math, if she has a kid at 18 (I hope not) I would have a grandkid at 56 that would have shown an interest in shooting and that's on the early side of it. So maybe they would wind up with some of them. If not, probably sold before I'm too old to sell them for what they are worth.

 

[Mike Sr.]

Right now I am in my mid 60's and for the last yr or so I have been thinking about the same concerns presented here. This is my 2nd month retired so I have been cullling my heard. For sure my kids have ""absolutely no clue"" on the 'real' value of the guns I've collected over the last 40 yrs.

Last month I bought my sons 2004 Jeep Rubicon, 74,440 miles on it, and I have been restoring it to it's proper glory!!! Glory in the sense that I think 04' was the last yr for the 4.0 motor and it has a 4spd Auto, and I though I heard or read that most had 3spd auto's but I am not sure on the accuracy of the 3spd's.




Well, guess where the restoration money is comiing from...you guessed it! I am selling some of my 'stuff' mostly the 3rd of triplets. So far most everything underneath has been replace w/new better aftermarket parts. Already have a JKS body lift kit and the next episode will be a suspension lift kit...about 3-inches. After the Suspension kit a few more modifications and I will be done. Pretty sure when all is restored I'll have approx $2600-$3200...and I 'could' stilll sell if in the mid 15's if I want to....

So this is where part of the gun collection is going: into the Rubicon. When completely done I'll sell my F150 4x4 then I can focus on buildiing up my 6.0, 4x4, 1/2, 07 Surburban.

As most of you know I am a stainless afficianado, so I still buy good, stainless guns. But I have so much gun stuff, I am almost ashamed to admit it. And during the next few months I be gathering, counting and deciding what to keep, what to give away, what to sell.

Right now trying to get my Grandson Ethan heavily involved in fishing; a month ago I was teaching him checkers and chess. And the little brat after two days was beating me in checkers and on a 3rd day I am sweating a chess game...he picked up all the correct chess moves in 3 days...he's EIGHT...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Maybe I should tell him how I waxed Boby Fisher, maybe that would scare him...heheeeeee


For sure before the yr is over I will have all sorted, divided and directed where certain guns go. This does not count the two duffle bags of Bucks and Gerbers I have managed to acquire...phewwwwwwwwwwww.....these knives are going also.


Yes, I am not going to have heartburn about who gets what, I am not going to wait till I am room temperature to get this settled. I am going to enjoy their using my stuff while I am still here to do so...

The family on my Dad's split up, broke up, quit talking w/each other when upon my grandparents death the FIGHT FOR THINGS became blood letting...when I was 15...this was burned into my memory....

I am not going let that history be my history.

 

[cambeul41]

I don't have a great many guns; my kids have expressed no interest; my wife is 18 years younger; she claims them all; so I will let her worry about it.

The family on my Dad's split up, broke up, quit talking w/each other when upon my grandparents death the FIGHT FOR THINGS became blood letting...when I was 15...this was burned into my memory....

Something similar happened in my father's family, but not so bad. My parents, to avoid such things, ordered the five of us to sit down together to draw up an agreement specifying who got what. It worked.

 

[Jonah71]

Yes...IF I have the time. Well, I know where 12 of them are going anyway. The "leftovers" will be given to a good friend to sell or do whatever he sees fit to do with them. I really don't have any close family members who like to shoot handguns. I already have signed paperwork with serial numbers etc. All that's left to fill in is the date. If I'm gone suddenly, there is someone with a key, the neccessary letters to gain entrance, and instructions. The reason I say 12 is that there are only 10 I plan on never selling and 2 I'm asking so much as to discourage an actual sale. I just didn't want them sold by a relative who doesn't understand the market value of guns or appreciate them.

 

[tech30528]

NFA trust for the guns
Real estate holding LLC for the property
Long term disability coverage for the health expenses

The kids don't inherit the guns, they are owned by the trust and they are trustees.
The kids don't inherit the real estate, they get promoted from nonmanaging members to managing members of the holding company as a provision of my will and don't pay any inheritance tax. If they decide to sell off properties all they pay is capital gains.

The odds of needing disability care after the age of 60 is high enough to pick up disability insurance in your late 50s so that your kids will be protected. Nothing against the OP, most people don't know that these are things they can do before the time comes. But if you know these things ahead of time there are things you can do to protect them. The NFA costs $550 to set up. I've got several rifles worth more than that. The holding company cost $1000 to set up and allows us to purchase our retirement home pretaxed without it showing anywhere as a personal asset.

Think about Social Security. Benefits are being scaled back every few years. Nobody is going to dump it, that would be political suicide. Nobody is going to fully fund it, that would also be political suicide. I can see a day when you will have to prove need to get it and that will require an audit. If you own too much, you will be ineligible. You don't need to own things to have full control of them.

 

[usmarine0352_2005]

NFA trust for the guns
Real estate holding LLC for the property
Long term disability coverage for the health expenses

The kids don't inherit the guns, they are owned by the trust and they are trustees.
The kids don't inherit the real estate, they get promoted from nonmanaging members to managing members of the holding company as a provision of my will and don't pay any inheritance tax. If they decide to sell off properties all they pay is capital gains.

The odds of needing disability care after the age of 60 is high enough to pick up disability insurance in your late 50s so that your kids will be protected. Nothing against the OP, most people don't know that these are things they can do before the time comes. But if you know these things ahead of time there are things you can do to protect them. The NFA costs $550 to set up. I've got several rifles worth more than that. The holding company cost $1000 to set up and allows us to purchase our retirement home pretaxed without it showing anywhere as a personal asset.

Think about Social Security. Benefits are being scaled back every few years. Nobody is going to dump it, that would be political suicide. Nobody is going to fully fund it, that would also be political suicide. I can see a day when you will have to prove need to get it and that will require an audit. If you own too much, you will be ineligible. You don't need to own things to have full control of them.

Very good info.



Yes, I don't know much about this kind of thing. My mother is handling all of the stuff regarding my father. Both are fairly young, in their early 60's.
.

 

[tech30528]

Well, these are the kinds of things that you find out about when you complicate your life lol. I own an auto repair business and have been thru Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace course. The disability (long term care) insurance is his idea. The real estate holding company was my idea after loosing a home to foreclosure in the infancy of the business. Ran the idea past my accountant and her lawyer and they liked the idea so much they did it first. Turns out it's not all that uncommon. I did it thru a different lawyer. You can do it without one, but the advantage is that doing it thru the lawyer "masks" your company behind the attorney's office which makes it that much more difficult for anyone to discover who is the actual owner for liability reasons. The NFA was suggested by a friend who has a lot more toys than I do. I'm more or less just getting started. But I'm only 43 and plan on retiring when I'm 55. Fate favors the prepared mind.

 

[tech30528]

I hope to pass most of my guns - and other assets - on to family members while I'm still able to enjoy the kids enjoying the assets. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN AT LEAST FIVE YEARS BEFORE I NEED LONG-TERM CARE. Why? Because if I do that, it preserves my estate so that Medicare will pay for my nursing home - and I'll get exactly the same care as if I were paying out of my estate.
I'm going through this with both parents. They cost about $75,000/year each in costs that would have been covered 100% by Medicare. That's $750,000 that could have been used by their families....and they are getting the same care in the same facilities as those with no assets get from Medicare.
We all have living trusts in place. I encourage you all to explore that, if you have assets.

Definitely look in to the holding company LLC and the LTC insurance. Even if you are still paying for your home you can deed it to the holding company and make the payments from the "rent" you charge yourself. In my case my business will pay rent to the holding company even after the building is paid off, and the holding company will use the money to pay for my home. The business writes off the rent as an operating expense, so it is pretax, and the holding company never shows a profit, so it has no tax liability since LLCs are tax thru entities.

 

[mrcooper]

I have no one in the family that is interested in my guns other than to sell them and spend the money.
So if i can i want to take them all to the mt and find a good clif to toss them over.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I am in my early 50's now. I inherited my fathers and my father in laws guns both. I have about 18 pre 64 rifles and my pistols range from 1929 to present.

My son(my only child) will inherit all all 27 of my guns, the difference here is he already wants them and I'm not dead yet. Hopefully not for a while.

When I discover I am terminally ill he will get alot of things very quickly, my wife obviously will be taken care of as she is the one with no interest in my guns.

But some of those guns were her fathers and even though she doesn't care for them she also won't part with them for that reason.

I don't know how this will work out when I go but I know this, I WILL BE WATCHING. And I already told her this so she better do the right thing and make sure my son get all but the pistol she will need to protect herself with.

I've already picked it out of my collection and I am starting to train her with it weather she likes it or not. It may save her life some day after I'm gone and she has recognized this.

I will do like my father before me, when his time got near he told me to get over here and get this stuff out of here before he passes. It was very hard to do because taking them meant he was going to die soon and that really hurt but it was his wish so I sucked it up and loaded them up.
My mother made sure I took them before I left that day.
I have never sold any of them and my son has told me that he won't be either. My father's guns are how I remember him when I get them out and look at them. My father in laws are the same for me.
To me those guns are their memorials.

 

[N003k]

Long way off for me still, but my plan is pretty smiple. Once I get too old to shoot them, I'll either pass them on to any children I have that I believe will enjoy them, or find someone that will! I'd rather at least some of them become family heirlooms that continue to get passed down as they become antiques, so, I'd want to be sure that any family member that recieves them would enjoy them, and not have to sell them.

Of course, that's in a perfect world, way too soon to see if things will work out for me in that regard!

 

[JVaughn]

Wife said she would bury me with my sidearm and and my pocketknife, along with two extra mags, just in case. She's a good wife.

The rest she can have, keep, sell, whatever she wants.

 

[glock2211]

I'm gonna pass most on and a few are going in the ground with just in case lol!

 

[Nicky Santoro]

No. I have them listed by serial number as a codicile to my will as a bequest to my daughter. In that way we bypass all the ridiculous NJ permit/FOID nonsense that would normally be required for her to take ownership.