It is not unusual for us to go through the discovery process with our clients to uncover unusual investments that have accrued because of a passion for collecting certain items or for a need to diversify their investments.

Over the years my clients have collected many interesting items such as:

• Radios – this led to a live connection to the international space station!
• World War 2 memorabilia
• Classic arcade games – OK that is me
• Cars
• Watches
• Signed photos of sports and movie stars

Some collections do increase in value.  Some are for private enjoyment.  But all need to be to accurately valued to calculate inheritance tax as the vast majority will be included in your estate on death and potentially subject to inheritance tax.  Consider a scenario where your children inherit your collection with a 40% tax bill and have to sell it to simply pay HMRC their tax.

Let your family know how to sell your collection

So, we also need to leave instructions to our beneficiaries as to how to sell these once inherited.  It is a very good idea to have researched who are the likely brokers or auction houses who specialise in these areas.

A case study

A long-standing client of mine who has followed me throughout my career is an avid collector of gold coins.  Non-legal tender but a very interesting collection ranging from coins stamped with various UK monarchs, past and present, all acquired via one company based in London.

The company in question had been approached a number of times by the client to ask for a valuation of his collection and a potential buy back option they offered to clients should they wish to sell.  Sadly, their requests were never met with anything other than:

“It is the wrong time to sell, you should be buying” or

“We will email that over shortly”

The client had their collection in the company’s storage depot and it got to the point that they became concerned if the company in question had actually been storing his purchases or if it was all an elaborate scam.

WKM begin investigating

 I took authority from our client to speak with the company in question, which took some time to speak to their contact at the company.

Sadly, not all professionals are indeed professional.  Upon persisting twice a week to speak to the contact, over two months they finally returned my calls once I emailed their head of compliance and complained about their poor service.

The resultant conversation was short and hostile.

The contact insisted he had received none of my messages, nor any message from the client.

They maintained that the client could have access to their collection whenever they wanted, they simply needed to return the storage certificates they had been sent.  They also stated a buy back valuation had been sent to the client but they could not resend that to us for a historical view on the holding valuation.

Losing faith

By this point our client had lost all confidence that the company who had purchased his collection would do anything in terms of offering a valuation or any buy back option that was sensible.  It all felt too shady to believe any offer would be at market value. Returning the collection to the client was the only option.

Our client had already furnished us with copies of his paperwork and whilst there were invoices for purchases, there were no storage certificates.  We requested copies and insisted that if these took more than 2 weeks to reproduce, that the company proceed using copy invoices to transfer the collection to the client.

Persistence is the key

After 2 weeks there was no communication from the company and again I began leaving messages for the contact to call back.

After another four weeks I complained again and finally had an email from a different customer service contact who was quite helpful.  They located the collection but could not confirm all the holdings. They confirmed that all would be sent via secure delivery to the clients home we just needed to arrange a date and pay the storage fee which had built up over the years.

Negotiate to win

While we acknowledge the client signed up to a service for a fee, we felt aggrieved that the fee was at the full level despite the poor level of service we experienced.  We complained and were offered a good discount to the overall cost of storage and transport of around 50% which we felt acceptable to draw the matter to a close.

A month later

The collection was delivered apart from three items which are now being searched for at said company’s storage facility.  By and large, the collection is complete!

Not knowing who to trust next, the client turned to us to ask if we knew any companies who could help with the appraisal and auction process for which we turned to our professional contacts and contacted other fellow collectors who shared their panels of appraisers and auction houses to give an indication of value.

WKM can help!

1. We can now create an accurate valuation position for the client and begin the estate planning process.

2. We can leave their beneficiaries details of appraisers and valuers should they wish to sell the collection once inherited.

A long journey to get to the point of full knowledge and ownership for the client and quite a stressful one as it was unknown and uncertain throughout the whole process if the client actually owned his collection or if it was an elaborate scam!

A key reason why clients choose WKM is our ability to apply our experience and skills to different positions and achieve fantastic results for our clients.

Thanks for reading.