The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

While it makes probate lawyers' eyes light up and start thinking about that new Mercedes, IMHO there is absolutely no excuse to put your survivors though that hell. Getting a will done is easy and not very expensive unless you are a very wealthy person who needs complex estate planning. It is a no-brainer and the time to do it was yesterday!

Clay

Yeah, I remember having a will done up long ago, splitting my estate equally between my brothers and/or their heirs & assigns…

This was made before I had much of a collection to speak of. Now, one brother's gone, leaving a widow and two kids; the other (and his kid) are halfway around the world……. guess who's going to have to deal with the hoard?

Bill

Lucius1958 wrote:Yeah, I remember having a will done up long ago, splitting my estate equally between my brothers and/or their heirs & assigns…

This was made before I had much of a collection to speak of. Now, one brother's gone, leaving a widow and two kids; the other (and his kid) are halfway around the world……. guess who's going to have to deal with the hoard?

Bill

Well, another very good point Bill. Wills need to be reviewed from time to time and updated when changed circumstances require. Dig out that musty old document and go get it brought up to date ASAP.

One of the reasons I am so passionate about this is that I was once one of those probate lawyers early in my career before moving on to another field of practice. How often I saw huge messes that could easily have been avoided if the departed had only had a good will and kept it current. As old Ben said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Clay

Does a will even mean anything anymore? I have a friend that left a Beach House to his Son in Law and a Son. Now there in court, and it looks like the son will get 100% of it.

Amberola wrote:Does a will even mean anything anymore? I have a friend that left a Beach House to his Son in Law and a Son. Now there in court, and it looks like the son will get 100% of it.

Well, yes they indeed do. Of course sometimes the smell of money brings out the worst in people and litigation can ensue, with or without a will. However, that happens in a pretty small percentage of cases where there is a will, usually only where a lot of money is involved, and not all suites are successful in overturning a will by any means. Overturning a will is hard. It takes a lot more than not being happy because somebody did not get what they wanted. Successful will contests are few and far between--I have read bordering on something like 1%--and if somebody does it and loses, they are out a lot of money in litigation costs.

Clay

I tried THREE times to contact a relative of Jerry's that I located on http://www.whitepages.com.But all I got was an answering machine.I want them to understand that I'm NOT after ANYTHING,I just want to inform them of the thefts from Jerry's collection by those "boarders"!I hope and pray that they know.edisonplayer

edisonplayer wrote:I tried THREE times to contact a relative of Jerry's that I located on http://www.whitepages.com.But all I got was an answering machine.I want them to understand that I'm NOT after ANYTHING,I just want to inform them of the thefts from Jerry's collection by those "boarders"!I hope and pray that they know.edisonplayer

I'd say, your best bet would be to send a letter to the accompanying address. You might even provide a printout of this discussion, or a (printed) link to it, so they can check it out.

Joe

GREAT NEWS!!Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from Jerry's nephew Kurt.I had a very nice talk with him.He is now at Jerry's house going through things and boxing them up to sell.Kurt told me he had the "boarders'evicted from the house.I asked if Jerry had a will,Kurt said he did,and his theory was the "boarders'ripped it up.Thanks to Jerry's friends Barry Cheslock and some others he got the missing phonographs back.I also gave Kurt Dave Milefsky's phone number.Dave lives not too far away in Boyce,VA.He was a good friend of Jerry's,like myself.edisonplayer

That is great news! Thank you so much for following up on all that--- As much as Jerry loved the old machines, I know he would have hated to see them stolen and sold for drug money. Will you be keeping us up-to-date about any sale/auction? I may give Dave a call. It's been far too long since I talked with him anyway-- thanks again for your tenacity!

Brad Abell

After reading SOME of these posts, I cannot get the vision of buzzards circling the phonographs left behind out of my mind. Altruism is born of many reasons. Gerard