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That's too bad, and grossly unfair to the uncle. On the other hand, grandma deserved something too. My dad effectively left everything to my sister, bypassing my mom who had worked right alongside him for half a century, worked harder than he did actually.Yes, it generally happened that way back in the day, unless it didn't.
Grandpa died in 1966, with only one of his three sons still at home & working the farm with him, the son who'd always been told he would inherit. But, the will wasn't written that way; it all went to grandma who'd "had it up to here" with farm living (yeah, they still had path & outhouse). She auctioned the farm & all the equipment in order to buy a little house in town, leaving my uncle out in the cold. Bad feelings in the family for years.
Planning and communication are so important when it comes to estate planning, otherwise there's going to be problems and drama. Doing pertinent research recently, I've found that there are firms who specialize in estate planning for farmers. They have a number of ways to preserve the farm for future generations, while at the same time preserving the family, leaving something for the non-farm offspring too. It seems that it a significant issue nowadays.
Personally I've had it up to here too, with farming. Nothing against farming or farmers in general, just this idea some (like my dad, and now my sister) have that it's the be-all and end-all of life, farmers are the elite and farming is the most noble and important thing a person can do, and that land is somehow more important than anything else, including your own kids and grandkids. Very sad, screwed up priorities. It's actually cult-like with some. That land doesn't care who's farming it; people/family is the only thing that really matters. If you run off your family and never bother to get to know your grandkids because they weren't farmers, then you leave a sad legacy indeed.
We're dealing with estate planning issues on other side of the family now too. If you have elderly parents, or are an elderly parent, now is the time to figure this out and get it in writing. Otherwise there's someone in the family, somewhere, guaranteed, who is greedy and will take advantage of the situation for their own gain. You think you know people until a bunch of money is involved. Even siblings (especially siblings) will surprise you with their greed or sense of entitlement.
You could very well be right. That makes sense. It's sad that the fellow who collected all this apparently had no one who cared enough to know about his collection. Whoever sold it to the Youtube guy probably got pennies on the dollar, and if this joker was really the guy who owns it, he's probably looking at a major windfall. I got the feeling that he had no clue how much some of those, especially the old revolvers, are actually worth.I believe it. The reasons I do are that the guns look like they've been neglected for quite some time and the new owner doesn't seem to know anything about them. If this was the collection of someone who knew what they were worth and they were just making videos to go viral the guns wouldn't be treated like this at all. I would surmise that an older man had collected for years and didn't really discuss with his family how much he spent due to their lack of interest or his embarrassment in divulging what he was spending. I have friends like that. He was a hoarder which is obvious and the joy ended with the purchase and the next high would come when he bought another. The guns were either in the shed because he didn't have room in the house or he died and they were moved in later by the family and left to rust for a while. Along comes a young guy with some cash looking to invest and there you have it.
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