[USER]

I am posting here since most of you are numbers people. I cannot seem to understand how to divide the assets. My mom passed leaving the seven children total (I am included in that) her possessions.

One item is a car. One sibling wants the car for the asking price of 16k.

What makes the most sense of dividing the sale price of the car amongst the 7? Should all 7 get $2285? Which would give the car purchasing sibling back $2285.

I think that makes sense, but some siblings are saying no that it should be divided amongst 6.

I am seriously stumped. If a random person had bought the car, then the car purchasing sibling would have the same cut.

It shouldn’t matter, right? Please help!

[Kathy]

When I was in that situation we valued all the assets and divided. However in the stock portfolio we didn’t want to sell all the stocks so we each got a portion of each.

I ended up taking a property and my value was deducted for the remainder because the property could not be sold because it was already in a payment plan and it was a whole different situation

[Rhonda]

You don’t normally work through an estate a single asset at a time. But yes, the net proceeds would be divided among the seven.

Or the buyer could negotiate their “portion” as a reduction in cost – paying the estate only 13.8K with the note that the ~2K deduction in price is their portion, and the remainder would go only to the 6 not the 7.

[Jerry]

It would be 7. But this is all the wrong approach. You consider all the assets at once and determine the monetary value of the total.

Then you give him the car, and 16k less of the other assets.

[Jim]

By 7 is correct.
Imagine there were only 2 heirs. If you divided the $16K by only 1 heir, the non-buyer would get $16K and the buyer would get the car.

That feels obviously wrong compared to the buyer getting the car and the non-buyer getting $8K, meaning you divide by all heirs, not all-but-one.

[Nicole]

How was the value determined? If 16k is market rate, dividing by 7 makes sense.

If it is lower than what you could sell it for to a stranger, they already have a discount and dividing by 6 should be fine as they know more the care of the vehicle had which has some value.

[Katie]

Don’t look at the assets individually. Take the total value of the estate divided by the 7 heirs and then subtract the value of the car from that sibling’s inheritance.

[Author]

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