The Hidden Cost of the ‘Great Stuff Transfer’

As a generation prepares to inherit unprecedented wealth, they may be overlooking what comes with it: all the other stuff.More than 8 in 10 recent inheritors of real estate (84%) said the property had to be cleaned out before it could be listed, and 36% called the cleanout one of the hardest parts of the process, according to a new survey of 1,350 heirs and executors.Jennifer Carr knows how quickly that job can overwhelm a family. Her Dallas-based company, Jen Rosie Designs, helps clients sort, sell, donate, and dispose of household contents after deaths, downsizing moves, and other transitions.One recent client had taken responsibility for clearing a 4,500-square-foot Dallas home after his father moved into a nursing home. The only problem was, he lived in Oklahoma, while the house and decades worth of belongings remained in Texas.“I thought my wife was going to have to quit her job, and we were going to have to come down here and deal with this house for months,” Carr recalls him saying.Instead, Carr and her team took over. They spent five full days going through the house, where the family had kept tax returns dating to the 1960s. By the end, they had assembled 339 auction lots,...