This Killer of an Estate Tax

Originally published before (date unknown)

There were two meetings on how the estate was to be divided.

But there was only one way the possessions were to be divided.  Of course there is this killer of an estate tax of 60% which means deep trouble for me.  I have a black hole of money.  Really.
Anyway I know that there are some ways around this tax  keeping in mind that the government would like the money to cover the taxes that the now defunct couple will not pay.
As an artist, for me, the most desirable thing is for the estate to remain intact enough for my artist credentials to have evidently been created very young in my parents home.  Or even before like in the ancestral estate that my mother comes from.  So I have been thinking a lot in that line.
I believe that this killer tax can be detoured into something fundamental like a foundation for charitable purposes.  Also, I know that there are some very gifted collectors of house estates in the suburbs.
Now one of the things that my father, a salesman, loved about Cote St.St. Luc was the very fact that it was hard to get to and hard to get around in.  This meant he could be left pretty much alone from talking to clients after hours.
So this meant that if you were a housewife, like my mother, you had find a way to occupy your time.  And a large amount of housewives found a lot of time and energy and talented way to collect and create a household.  For her friends there was a lot of serious reading and thinking time in company of the television.  they thought a lot so when they would had an occupation like a housewife, they would look for hobbies that would work with it,number one, like furnishing the house.  And number two, they would do a lot of reading about it.  the third dimension had to do with international travel and negotiations.  In this family multiculturalism was considered a gift and a prestigious one at  that.

So when she decided to decorate the house she combined all of these with time.  That mean, reading, spare time and multicultural negotiations. And she was not alone.
So going back to what kind of foundation could be created with the money destined for taxes. How about a museum created with the Fabian estate and dedicated to those in rather remote suburbs who are interested in the gentle art of housewiving and housekeeping?

Thats a thought.

As I write this I can see in my mind my brother shaking his head and hating the whole thing.  Why?  For the simple fact remains is that it is all very fine to talk of museums and foundations and the like. but how do we, the heirs, benefit from it?  It is going to be very time consuming and even more so if all the money and time goes into the rather complex of maintaining a living foundation and a museum to boot.

In other words, how do we turn this into a profitable venture without sacrificing our freedom?
This remains the question.

Another question is how do we, the heirs, truly benefit from the money left from the estate.  You see, if a lot of work is not done to preserve it then the government gets very little for it.  Because most people I know are more inclined to distribute to the poor and forget about it then doing once again, a lot of work for no reward.  And for a hostile tax to boot.  For the heirs that is.

I hate the idea of distributing it to the unfeeling unanomous.  So the question comes again how can this estate benefit me?

Aso for why there is an estate of possessions instead of fluid capital see the article Sixteen Million Dollars.  And besides, if there will be nothing left at least my parents could benefit from excellent possessions instead of counting money in the bank that they will not be using and none of their heirs will either.