What we hold · Family Heirlooms
Keeping Family Heirlooms Intact Through a Long Absence
Heirlooms are the property with no replacement and no market. They are also the first thing dispersed when a household breaks up — sold, borrowed, or simply lost track of.
Consultations with counsel are complimentary. We can meet at the facility or at your office.
40+
Years operating since 1983
Zero
Security incidents on record
9R
Highest UL vault rating available
0
Client boxes ever drilled for non-payment
Why this matters
What goes wrong over a long term
When a household loses its center for several years, possessions scatter. Well-meaning relatives take custody of items and memories differ later about what went where. Nothing is stolen; everything is gone. A documented inventory in a single location prevents the entire category of dispute.
How custody handles family heirlooms
- One custodian, one inventory, one location — no distributed memory to reconcile later.
- Climate held at 70°F and 50% relative humidity protects textiles, silver, and photographs.
- Named family members can be given access without the client being present.
- Nothing is sold, auctioned, or surrendered for non-payment while a custodian is in place.
Coverage
How this is insured
Heirlooms are where a fiduciary should be candid with a family: market value and family value are different numbers, and only one is payable. Service medals, letters, a christening gown or a family bible may schedule for very little and be genuinely irreplaceable. No policy fixes that. What custody can remove are the failure modes that actually destroy these objects — humidity, heat, light and casual handling — since money was never going to be the remedy.
Succession
What happens to it in an estate
Florida permits a separate written list disposing of tangible personal property, and heirlooms are usually distributed that way rather than through the will itself. The list only works if the family can find both it and the objects. Keeping the memorandum with the items, and telling the family the arrangement exists, prevents the outcome these things most commonly meet: a house cleared quickly by people who did not know what they were handling.
Which box size fits
Mixed heirlooms — silver, photographs, small objects, jewelry — usually settle into a 5×15×24 or 10×10×24.
Common questions
- Can family reach the box while the client cannot?
- Yes, where the client has named them at intake or the box is held by a trust. That is the arrangement to set up on day one.
- What if the family disagrees later?
- The signed intake inventory and the access designations govern. That is precisely why they are documented.
- Can items be released one at a time?
- Yes, to an authorized party, with each release documented.
Related
Also held in custody
Case & Legal Documents
Executed originals and full case files kept whole for years, with counsel named as an authorized agent at intake.
Read more →
Jewelry & Watches
Portable, easy to liquidate, and hard to prove was ever there, which is the exact problem a signed intake inventory solves.
Read more →
Business & Corporate Records
The box is rented by the entity, so minute books and share ledgers stay reachable when the officers change.
Read more →
Set custody up before the date, not after.
Tours are private and by appointment. You will see the vault door, the man-trap entry, and the box sizes in person. No account relationship is required to visit.