Prepare the collection before responsibility changes.

A significant collection is often well understood by its owner and far less so by those who will one day be responsible for it.

We bring together the ownership, value and documentation of each car, with its provenance and the intentions around it, giving the family and professional advisers a record they can act on.

We work alongside the owner’s legal, tax and financial advisers and prepare the automotive assets before pressure arrives.

While the owner can still decide.

The future of a collection begins with understanding what the owner would like to happen to it. Some cars are intended to remain in the family, others to pass to a particular person or eventually be sold.

We record those intentions alongside the information about each car, and identify where the records, the provenance or the evidence supporting value fall short.

This gives the owner and their advisers a clearer basis for planning. Recording an intention does not replace the legal arrangements needed to give it effect.

Value and liquidity.

The value held in a collection and the cash available to an estate are different things. Whether cars are retained, transferred or sold has consequences for the wider plans of the owner and family.

We give the advisers a clear understanding of the automotive assets: their current valuation position, the evidence behind it and the practical considerations around a sale or transfer.

That allows questions about liquidity and the future of individual cars to be considered in advance, with specialist automotive information available to support the advice.

Knowledge that survives a handover.

Much of a collection’s history lives in the owner’s memory, the knowledge of individual specialists and correspondence accumulated over many years.

We preserve that knowledge alongside the records: the history of each car and the work done on it, the specialists who know it, where it is kept and how it is insured.

The record remains connected and current, so a change in responsibility does not mean starting again.

When responsibility passes.

For a collection already under our oversight, the family, executors and advisers find a current record of the collection, with its documentation and valuation history, and a point of contact who understands the cars.

We maintain continuity of care and, when instructed, support a sale or transfer on behalf of the owner or the estate. Decisions begin from an informed position, with the relevant specialists and advisers involved.

We provide specialist automotive information and oversight. Legal, tax and financial advice remains with the owner’s appointed professional advisers.