Is there anything more difficult than losing a loved one?
After it happens, most days are filled with sadness, stress, panic, and confusion. There’s so much to do, from telling friends and family, to planning for a service, to simply grieving.
…and to top it all off, you must deal with inheritance. This is often one of the most stressful parts of losing a loved one. Hopefully, all of their possessions and assets were accounted for in their will, and the executor is competently doing their duties. But even if everything is taken care of, there can still be a massive wrinkle if your loved one was a fan of firearms: their gun collection.
What to Do with a Firearm Collection
Before you put your firearm collection in your will, you need to figure out if there are any better ways to deal with it.
For example, would anyone in your family or circle of friends be interested in inheriting your firearm collection?
Guns are expensive items, and a massive collection can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s an incredible amount of equity, and you definitely want your loved ones to receive it. But might they better be able to appreciate it if those funds were liquidated first?
Reasons Not to Will Your Firearms
The primary reason why you shouldn’t put your guns in your will is that it makes things incredibly complicated. The provisional gun license that comes in the will cannot be transferred to the recipients, meaning that they’ll need to get their own valid PAL.
Not only that, but they’ll also likely have to pay estate administration taxes on the firearms, as the firearms will likely have a very high value. This is a financial hit that many people won’t be expecting and one that can make a stressful, emotionally painful time even worse.
If you want someone to inherit your firearms, our expert recommendation is that you should transfer your firearms to them before you pass. This simplifies matters immensely! You can simply transfer the gun license to your family member or friend, negating the issue of having to put anything in your will. You can make 100% sure that the recipient genuinely wants your firearms and won’t just sell them for the potential funds. And on top of all that, you’ll actually get to see your loved one enjoying their new firearms!
Sell Your Firearms Instead
You also have the option to sell your firearms long before you pass. This gives you lots of additional options. You could split up the funds between family members, rather than just giving the collection to a single person. Or you could even enjoy the money yourself in your golden years! Vacation cruise, anyone?
The trick is that you need to sell your firearms in a way that’s safe, effective, and brings in the maximum amount of money possible. Our advice would be to avoid selling them at a gun store or on online forums. A gun store is likely to offer much less than the firearms’ actual value, and online gun forums can be havens for scammers.
Go with GTA Guns Auctions!
The best option for selling your firearms is through GTA Guns auctions. With us, you don’t have to worry about scams or getting low-balled by gun stores.
Here is how it works: You give us a call and arrange to drop your firearms off. You securely transport them to our brick-and-mortar location and… that’s the end of your job! We take care of the rest.
First, we put your firearms through our GUNCHECK™ and CYCLECHECK™ services to determine their condition. Photos are taken of both the exterior and interior of the guns to put on the auction listing. Then, the firearms are posted to our auction site.
Over the next few weeks, collectors from around North America can bid on your firearms, slowly driving the price up higher and higher. These potential buyers are often serious collectors who will offer major coin to land the firearms they want.
After the auction, everything is still our responsibility. We take care of all the paperwork, transport the firearms to the new owner, and even transfer the license. All you have to do is sit back and wait for the funds to come into your bank account.
Once you have that money, it’s entirely up to you what to do with it. You could put it in your will, leaving your family their inheritance in a much more accessible form. Or you could splurge on a nice winter vacation to get out of the freezing cold for a few weeks. Your options are endless!
Planning your will and what should happen to your assets after you’ve passed is never comfortable to think about, but unfortunately, it’s a reality we all have to deal with. By liquidating your guns right now, you’ll be saving your family a tremendous amount of work during an incredibly difficult time. Plus, you could get a vacation out of it! Win-win! If you’d like to learn more about GTA Guns auctions, or any of our other services, please feel free to contact us today!