Table of Contents
Introduction: Dying Is for Other People 1
The Golden Age of Giving 5
Part 1 Live Life On Purpose 7
Chapter 1 Straight Talk About the Facts of Life
How to talk to those you love about death 9
Chapter 2 What About Me?
Estate planning for nontraditional families-in other words, most of us 14
Chapter 3 When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Getting your papers in order 22
Prepare for the Meteor 26
Chapter 4 Words to Live (and Die) By
The legal lingo 31
The Glossary 33
Part 2 How They Did It 41
Chapter 5 Free to a Good Home
Even if you don't have a Picasso, you can still help your museum 43
Dos and Don'ts of Donating to the Arts 46
Chapter 6 All for Art's Sake
Virginia and Ed Fultz 49
The Foundation of Giving 56
Chapter 7 Remember Where You Came From
Paying homage to home 58
Where Does the Money Go? 60
The Power of Variance 66
Seven Options for Planned Giving 69
Giving in the Extreme 70
Chapter 8 Paying It Back & Paying It Forward
For some, leaving a legacy begins now 71
Chapter 9 A Gift for the Generations
Arlene Cogen 81
Three Easy Ways to Give 85
Choose Charities with Care 86
Successful, Single, and Charitable 87
Chapter 10 A Cautionary Tale
The Quinn family 89
Lessons Learned the Hard Way 94
Better Ways to Avoid Taxes (Than the Freezer) 96
Part 3 Paint Your Canvas 99
Chapter 11 Put It in Writing
Demystifying wills and trusts 101
Bombproof Your Will 108
So, What If I Don't Have a Will? 109
Prince: Music Legend's Life Ends in Discord 111
But for His Simple Will… 112
Wills versus Trusts 118
When to Revisit Your Plan 119
Chapter 12 Build Your Fences
Keeping out the taxman, creditors, in-laws, and other interlopers 120
Paul McCartney: Money Can't Buy Me Love 127
Chapter 13 How Much for the Kids?
Divide assets equally or based on need or performance? 130
Two Brothers: One Spender, One Saver 133
One Father's Legacy: You Reap What You Sow 140
Howard's Plan: What About You? 144
Chapter 14 What Else Can Go Wrong?
Titles trump wills and trusts 146
Roots in Feudalism 147
Chapter 15 Heading Off the Buttinskies
When someone challenges the will 153
But Mine's Fake and His Is Real 158
Part 4 The Magic Funnel 161
Chapter 16 Turning Material Goods into Money, Then into Meaning
What to do with everything else 163
Streamline Your Life 166
Chapter 17 Going, Going, Gone
When liquidating home contents, keep legacy in mind 170
Art Lover's Passion Helps Kids Cope with Cancer 178
Chapter 18 Giving Away the Farm
There's gold in them there tractors 180
Auctioneer to the Stars 184
Chapter 19 Get Real About Value
Market power
What's Hot (and Not) in the Secondhand Market 190
Chapter 20 Deborah's Mom: Keeping the Stories Alive
Downsizing through the decades 193
Lessons Learned from Downsizing Mom: From Biggest Shock to Best Advice 196
Chapter 21 That Paper Trail
What to do with diplomas, certificates, and the family photos 198
Solving the Diploma Dilemma 200
Making Memories Out of a Mess 205
Chapter 22 To Deal with Collections, Understand the Collector
From cameos to comic books, model trains to snow globes 207
How to Liquidate a Collection 210
Why Do We Collect? 214
Chapter 23 Downsizing the Family Jewels
The stuff of legend, lore, and lawsuits 216
The Jewelry Box: How to Separate Trash from Treasure 220
The Tale of the Tainted Diamond 225
The Last Word: How to Live Forever 228
Appendix 231
Checklist: What to bring to your first meeting with a financial adviser 232
Trusted Advisers 234
Asset Worksheet: What do I have? 235
Asset Inventory 237
Household Bills 240
Values Worksheet: What matters? 244
Acknowledgments 248
Index 250
About the Author 258
