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Hints for deciding who's in charge:
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If you are distributing your own property to family members, you'll probably want to be in charge. If you're not up to it, you might let your family members be in charge collectively and decide things by majority vote.
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If you're preparing your will or trust, you can provide detailed directions to the executor about how you'd like the method to be applied. After you're gone, the executor can guide the others through the process, adjudicate disputes, and distribute the property.
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If you're getting a divorce, you and your spouse may want to decide together how to apply the method. If necessary, you can appoint a neutral outsider to adjudicate disputes.
Whoever's in charge can also serve as record-keeper, but it's usually a good idea to ask a trusted and neutral outsider to do the job:
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If whoever's in charge is also going to be bidding, it's not a good idea to allow him or her to also serve as record-keeper. If you elect to collect information about preferences (in Step 5) or set reserve prices (in Step 8), this will need to be done by a non-bidder.
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If you're distributing your own property to loved ones, you may be offended if others don't value your things as highly as you do. If an outsider keeps records, you needn't ever see the bids.
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If you're getting a divorce, then you and your spouse may not be able to work cooperatively. If a third party keeps records, you'll have less contact with each other and fewer opportunities for conflict.
Step 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16
Copyright © 2004 Lori Alden. All rights reserved.