Your collection of baseball cards, Birkin handbags or aging Bordeaux may deliver hours of pleasure. It’s also an estate planner’s nightmare.  

However much joy those stamps, coins or bobbleheads might bring you now, your collection is also an asset, and you’ll need to decide what becomes of it when you pass on.  

Placing a precise value on a collection is tricky business, according to accountants and attorneys who deal with estate planning.  

And what happens to those paintings or vintage guitars when you die? Splitting a collection seems to defeat its purpose. And some of your heirs may not share your enthusiasm for Eisenhower-era comic books. 

“Imagine you don’t have a will,” said Wayne Hassay, LegalShield provider attorney and managing partner at Maguire Schneider Hassay in Ohio. “How do you distribute 10,000 baseball cards or 500 bottles of wine among your six intestate heirs?” 

Here, then, are five expert tips for handling collections in estate plans. 

Document your collection 

If you have a collection with financial or sentimental value, estate planners say, consider making a record of what you have and what it’s worth. 

“At a minimum, self-document your collection,” said Sarah Gaymon, a CPA at Berkowitz Pollack Brant in Florida. Your own documentation “is something credible, and it gives you a baseline of what the value could be.” 

Ideally, populate a spreadsheet or fill a file folder with descriptions of every item in the collection, including how you got it, why it’s valuable, what you paid and what it might be worth today.  

Don’t have time for a spreadsheet? Take photographs or video of your collection. While you’re at it, make a visual record of your other stuff. 

“Back in the day, they used to say, ‘Walk around your house and take a video of all the rooms in your house,’” said Elizabeth Buffardi, a CPA and certified financial planner in the Chicago area. “That way, if there’s a natural disaster, you can say, ‘Look, insurance company, here’s all the stuff that was in my house.’” 

Consider insuring your collection 

If you have a collection with considerable value, experts say, look into having it insured. And don’t presume it’s already insured. 

“There is an assumption, ‘Well, I’ve got homeowners insurance, it has to count,” Hassay said.  

Maybe not. Homeowner policies vary widely in whether and how they cover collections.  

Consider taking out a valuable items policy, which is typically designed to cover jewelry, musical instruments and other collectibles.  

In the process, the insurer will probably ask you to document your collection. They may ask you to get an appraisal. 

First, though, decide if it’s worth the cost to insure your collection. Insurance costs are rising.   

“You have to think about, if it’s lost, stolen, damaged, how sad will I be?” Buffardi said. “How big of a hit are you willing to take on it?” 

Appraise your most valuable items 

Formal appraisals can get pricey. And you might not want to hire an appraiser to pin a price on your Beanie Babies collection.  

But for high-value artwork, jewelry and the like, appraisals matter. 

“If you start broaching five figures and above, it’s probably not a bad idea to do it,” said Michael Chuah, principal attorney at Paxterra Law in Los Angeles.  

Appraisals help with insurance coverage and estate planning. They also signal to potential heirs that the weird, splotchy painting above the fireplace should not go to the dumpster. 

Tell loved ones what you have 

The last thing you want, after your death, is for your prized baseball card collection to land in a recycling bin. 

You know why your collection matters. Your loved ones may not. Consider taking some time to walk them through it. 

“A lot of times, people will save something because they think it’s valuable, and then the younger generation will say, ‘Omigod, that’s the first thing I’m throwing out,’” Buffardi said. 

Too many aging Americans shy away from discussing their valuables with loved ones, Hassay said. 

“The gut instincts of so many clients I’ve seen over the years is, ‘It’s about money. It’s private. I’m not going to talk about money,’” he said. 

Tell your loved ones about your collection, where you keep it, what it’s worth and where to find any documentation about its value and provenance.  

In case they don’t plan to keep it, tell them how to find a dealer or auction house that would net them a good price.  

“If you’re a collector, you know what you have,” Gaymon said. “You know where to sell it.” 

Write a plan for distributing your collection 

Divvying up a collection in an estate plan can be tricky. Who gets the one painting that’s worth five figures? Some loved ones might care more than others about your fine wines or vintage LPs. 

“If you’re going to leave your children $100,000, it’s cash. They can easily spend it,” Gaymon said. “You leave your kids $40,000 worth of vinyl, how are they going to sell it? Who’s going to buy it?” 

It’s important to include valuable collections in a will or trust, which instruct how to distribute your stuff upon your death.  

Trusts are generally more complex, but they are ideal vehicles for passing collections to your heirs, Chuah said. 

A trust “allows the grantor to have very specific directions about where this item is to go, in terms of the beneficiaries,” he said. 

The more careful you are in estate planning, Chuah said, the more likely you can avoid disputes among loved ones after you die. And Chuah has seen his share of dustups, especially when it comes to jewelry. 

“We have seen families fight over a piece of jade,” he said. ‘“Mom promised it to me.’ ‘No, Mom promised it to me first.’”