I think about this, other items in the house, and my business. While I have plans in place for most, one item I have to grapple with is an upcoming vacation where my family and those in the planning line are all together. I have not thought through who or what comes after everyone in the plan in case we all exit together.

One item I have in place for the music equipment and music are written instructions for my wife on who gets what if they are around, and who to PM on this message board for help selling items if the person(s) are no longer around.

For other items and my business I have written plans along with some video instructions which will most likely be difficult to watch, however better to have a plan than to have failed to plan.

Both of my brothers are lawyers, and the older of the two (I'm the oldest of four children) handled my Dad's estate with me, and he has agreed to handle mine with the help of my best friend who is a jazz trumpeter and musical fanatic like me. (In cooperation with my wife who really doesn't want my stuff). So I feel I'm covered, and in the meantime hopefully before an unfortunate event happens to me I plan on reducing my musical recordings and musical instruments holdings considerably. That process continues at a faster pace soon.

My wife has threatened to PAY someone to come and take all my stereo stuff away when I'm dead. Well she has tolerated a lot of system upgrades and purchases over the years😊.

HK

Kahuna Jack just brought up another point that has been mulling around my brain.

I'm wondering if a lot of our collections will "time out".
The stuff that we like will drop off of the collective interests of younger generations.
Kind of like how Model T's aren't being collected by people my age, let alone anyone under 30.

I'm reminded of my father's collection of steam engines. He owned dozens of them. He bought them at auctions all over the midwest. Usually a widow sold off her husband's collection. But after a few years there were fewer and fewer buyers as all of the old guys died off.
When my dad died in the early 1990's you couldn't give the stuff away, no one was interested in steam anymore. We more or less sold his collection off as scrap metal.

So I figure that the collections of vinyl and CD's that we are all sitting on will be eventually thrown away.
Yes it is a waste, but it is inevitable that the music that we enjoy will be looked at as the stuff that their great grandparents listened to.

Time marches on.

I try not to think about that future. It is something that will need attention soon.
Two of the three of my son-in-laws have shown interest in my hobbies. One likes the physical media while the other reproduction equipment. Both of those two definitely would like inheritance rights of the wood working tools. I'll let them deal with it when I pass.

Tony,

When we setup our will/trust we chose a local fiduciary to handle the estate. If you talk to an estate lawyer she/he will certainly be able to help you.

This stuff gets realer and more urgent for me having lost 4 of the most important women in my life in the last several years, and a brother. And though cultured denial around death and dying is becoming clearer, it is still so easy for me to forget that it could happen on the next drive to town or something. My wife and I, having amassed nice stuff over decades, and not having kids, had been pretty careful with "estate planning." But since she died a few years ago, the need to refine that and leave less work for those who handle my stuff is up for me!

She and I lived and worked together, and had been picking up mostly folk art that was "food" for our creative learning during our decades as potters. And being a musician and lover of great sound, music, gear and instruments were part of that. Unbeknownst to us it gradually became a nice "collection."

Then, I got so damaged in a car wreck I couldn't keep potting and playing. I moved into healthcare work and building on my fascination with home music beauty while my wife focussed on printmaking, painting, writing, bookarts, making lots of really nice things to add to our "collection," while continuing to pick up art that fed our ever-evolving love of the mysteries of beauty and expression.

We had been trying to arrange for a selection to go to a museum, but as I pick that back up, our cultural fascination with the vast virtual and screen time, seems real anything is losing interested people, and funding for non-profits is dwindling. Fingers crossed though, little natural art left, I am pretty sure it is important in the human legacy... which makes me feel responsible.

The remainder, including enough tubes and nice tuned up gear for several systems, is set up to go to close friends and family via an arranged party at our house sponsored by us (our estate), where our students/family/loved ones can gather and choose things. Luckily most are into music and art, many of them makers, and our closest students are musicians and potters. Also luckily for me, they are interested in trying to solidify a nice selection of our things for posterity in case I slip off before setting it up.

So I hope the beautiful sounding audio stuff will find good homes along with the art I have around. But man... who knows as cultivated fight-or-flight reactivity is made "normal" and amplifies culturally embedded time stress, solidifying a chronic sense of "no time" for much self thought or reflection on what is really important as human beings.

I have been playing with a new Musical Paradise DAC lately. With a sort of essentially simple modular design, a nice power supply, and highly adjustable tube/cap output stage, it is wild how clearly it shows changes with tubes, caps, settings, and mods. As usual with compelling new things that shake the sound up, exploring "finding" the DAC sound I need has caused me to refine some of my other gear on the way. This morning adding a few more power supply bypasses to the DAC, immediacy/speed, clarity, and rich complexity went up a few notches, perhaps finally "finding" the deeper beauty of the DAC, and helping the whole with what feels on 1st impressions like a new level of natural beauty... . I hope someone will be able to enjoy this as I have when I am no longer here!

One of my mentors as a young man taught me two important lessons. First to be humble, and second, going along with that, to search deeply for my motivation behind an action.
I love music and fall easily into the magic of making improvements in my system. I have to correct myself sometimes and decide if my motivation is to improve my listening experience or to conquer the Fear of Missing Out syndrome.
When my daughter came along 25 years ago it really made an impact on my realization about what my actions did to improve or not improve the world I was leaving behind for her and future generations. I am by no means a lover of new tech, but at that time I decided to stop buying CDs and vinyl, and started to go down the road of digital music. The stacks of plastic discs that I have acquired, listened to once, and put on a shelf is unacceptable to me. I love that when I see music posted here I can generally go to Qobuz, listen once, and move on. Often we find that someone has a moving experience with an album that is personal, and it does nothing for someone else.
Along these same lines, I keep my system extremely simple. Streamer to amp to full range drivers. No loops of magic boxes, buffering, and conditioning. For me it’s enough, and if you need more, that’s none of my business. When I make a new purchase something old has to go. I think some of the added value here is that I’ve been able to focus on room treatments this way, keeping a comfortable simple living space, and spend more time listening and less time obsessing over what I don’t have.
When I pass on I have a few items that will probably not be convenient for my heirs nor will they have interest in them. That’s ok. Someone may find them at a thrift store and discover music in a way they never imagined- or maybe not. It’s not my place in this world to fuss about things out of my control.
Something else I learned working in the recording industry is that trying to get all the latest gadgetry- I guarantee you someone else has more and something that sounds better. I have experienced a lot of braggadocios people over the years that like to flaunt what they have, and it’s almost laughable how desperate they are to tell others. Meanwhile, there are numerous folks that work with gear on a totally different level every day, and it’s just normal. I would encourage anyone to search for the deep motivation of why you listen and focus on the joy it brings you personally.

Nice thread to think about estate planning as we become more mature…I have 3 children in there 20’s and  they think I am wacko with my stereo obsession.  They want nothing more than their iPhone, airpods or headphones.  We are  currently updating our 20 year old trust and my daughter will be our executor and will handle selling any of our unwanted assets.  We are committed to make it easier on them than when we had to handle our parents and my single brother’s estates. Our plan is to sell/ donate anything not used or unwanted beginning now.  Set up and maintain a spreadsheet with all my stereo gear with prices paid and instructions on how to sell.  Usaudiomart, Ebay, The Musicroom and estate sale companies to handle everything else.  I have begun thinning out my audio accumulation such as all CD’s, CD gear, Records, Vinyl gear, accessories sold or donated and I do have a component hard rule “For every purchase in their must be a sale out” . Our mortality is not something we want to think about or face but our efforts will hopefully be appreciated.