Sentimental Items to Leave in Your Will

About Nicole Pajer

Nicole Pajer is a Los Angeles-based freelance published in The New York Times, Woman's Day, AARP, Parade, Wired, Glamour, People and more.

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In the process of preparing your will? You’ve likely included your retirement accounts, property that you own and other items of value. But beyond financial goods, have you considered how you’ll handle sentimental items? This is an area that people can often overlook. While your family can sometimes work together to divvy up items of sentimental value that aren’t put in a will, these types of items can lead to conflict between family members.

“If you don't do anything, your loved ones go through your things and they decide on who gets what item, potentially causing hurt feelings and conflicts,” says Brian Edwards, an associate attorney with Voyant Legal Estate Planning. “If you create a will or a trust, you can add language to the document that states your Personal Representative or Trustee must follow your written wishes on personal property including sentimental items.”

On that note, here are 10 sentimental items to consider leaving in your will.

Family Heirlooms

Jewelry, items of clothing, or a family crest—these are some of the many things that can be passed down from generation to generation as family heirlooms. To do this, you’ll want to establish who in the family gets the heirloom. It can be helpful to talk to family members ahead of time and ask, “Do you want this China set?” or to keep notes on who mentions wanting a certain item. Then, ensure it is included in your will.

Letters

Handwritten letters, journals that you kept throughout your life and personal diaries can hold dear sentimental value to loved ones. Passing them down can provide younger generations with a way to get to know you and can be a great way to preserve some family history.

Photography and Albums

From family photo albums to photography you took as a hobby or profession, these are items that can allow loved ones to share in some cherished memories. You can also include framed photographs that you had displayed in your home and even the negatives to older pictures in your estate planning plans.

Video Footage

Just like photography, videos are a great way for loved ones to be able to watch family history in action. You can include everything from slides for old projectors to VHS, DVDs and more. And if you have memories preserved on older film decks, you can consider having them modernized to be available to be stored digitally, as there are services that offer this.

Digital Assets

This category can include everything from access to your social media accounts to digital photo albums and documents on your computer, phone or tablet. It can also include items stored in the cloud, digital music, cryptocurrency, funds you have stored in a PayPal® or Venmo® account, e-books and more. To leave these to a specific beneficiary, you’ll want to work with whoever handles your trust or will and itemize them. Then you’ll want to designate who gets access to what and leave instructions on how to access the files - i.e. are there passwords and usernames required to log in? Is access to your email required to access certain accounts or reset passwords? Etc.

Art

Whether you have art that you created yourself or have artwork that you’ve purchased by other artists, art can be a great thing to pass along. Consider designating beneficiaries who enjoyed your original work or who have expressed interest in owning one of the paintings you have on your walls at home by other artists. Your art can be the perfect sentimental piece of decor in a loved one’s home.

Collections

Your grandfather’s banjo collection, the nutcrackers you collected each year for Christmas, your childhood baseball card collection. These are items that could hold sentimental value to your loved ones. They could also be worth some money down the line, which could benefit your family from that point of view as well. Consider leaving them to someone who will appreciate and properly care for them – i.e. storing baseball cards in the correct temperature so they don’t turn yellow, displaying the nutcrackers each holiday season versus leaving them in a box.

Family Recipes

Did your grandma make a special cookie that’s been in your family for generations, and you want to entrust it to a certain family member? This is a great item to include in your will. You can include handwritten recipes, recipe books and even those recipe cards that have been passed down from generations that are worn and dusted with baking powder from years of being well loved.

Custom Keepsakes

Anything you made or had passed along to you that was created by family or loved ones can be a great thing to pass along. Many people choose to include custom quilts, scrapbooks, arts, and crafts projects they made when they were younger, or a time capsule that has been in the family for years. These are all things that people near and dear to you may treasure.

Pets

To ensure your pet is well cared for, you can set up a pet trust and include instructions on who should receive the pet. This can specifically designate a person to oversee a pet and a successor should that person not be available. This is a great way to provide you with peace of mind that your dog, cat, parrot – (some of those guys can live decades) are well cared for.

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