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Posted By: warshawlaw

If you are concerned about a medi-cal lien (with good reason, I might add, since they are notorious estate pillagers), you might consider establishing a trust (probably an irrevocable one) to hold the cards and dispose of them, or maybe a FLIP (family limited partnership) to disburse ownership of the asset while maintaining control. You could also consider a gifting program too, tax free to your kids. If you've really got great stuff, consider a museum or library donation with certain rights reserved to you--at least you could see the cards and share them with the world under your name. Alternatively, if you have big bucks and historically valuable stuff, maybe a foundation is the way to go. My point is that greenbacks are not the only thing you may choose to receive for your cards. If the disposition of the asset is a real concern to you, book a couple of hours of time with an estate planning attorney in your area and kick around the issue a bit.

Hypothetically, of course, you could establish a safe deposit box with your kids or a trusted person as a co-keyholder and that person could clear out the cards when you die and leave nothing for the government to steal. Hypothetically, of course, since evading taxes and liens may be illegal and I would NEVER counsel anyone to do it. Lawyers call this the "Chinese box trick" BTW. No offense.

In any event, what I'd suggest you do is to get a high quality scan of each card done so that you can enjoy looking at them even after they are gone. I do this with the ones that got away and the ones I can never hope to own.

As for me, they'll have to pry my cards from my cold, dead fingers.