When you are gone, what will be remembered of your life? How will your stories be told? What legacy do you want to leave behind? Creating a photo estate may help you answer all of these questions.
Most commonly, people consider the word “estate” to relate to the net worth of a person including all of their financial assets, land and possessions. Many careers are centered around helping people with financial planning; and with the goal of leaving a financial legacy behind for their heirs.
We’ve spoken with a variety of people in these careers from life insurance agents to financial planners to estate attorneys and more. You might be surprised at a common occurrence that seems to cross all of these areas. We’ve received general agreement that:
75% of people who inherit a sum of money spend their inheritance in less than two years.
In the past, families worked hard to accumulate wealth. Then they lived off interest payments from the principal. Today, inheritances can be spent on home remodeling, vacations, debt payoff and many other big-ticket items. All the advance planning a person can do goes up in smoke less than two years after he or she has died.
Can you imagine your financial legacy being gone in such a short time? What about leaving a different kind of legacy? A legacy that can be found in a photo estate – where the net worth of our lives is collected, preserved and passed on to future generations?
Definition of a Photo Estate
At Pixologie, our definition of a photo estate is the following:
A printed or digital collection of photos, film, video, documents and memorabilia organized in a manner that allows another person or persons to view the photos, learn about the lives documented and be impacted by the legacy of those people.
A photo estate does not have to be a huge . . . in fact, less than 100 photos might do the trick. For some, the estate may contain hundreds or even thousands of photos. Your photo estate could contain:
- Photos of parents, grandparents & great-grandparents, perhaps a couple of where they lived, young and old, wedding
- Photos of your growing up years
- A few photos from each year of your adult life, family life and career – capturing what was important to you and what you’d like to see people in the future know about and perhaps be inspired by
- Photos that show your traditions (religious milestones, holiday celebrations, cultural events, etc)
- Pictures of the places you lived and a few of the places you traveled (with significant landmarks)
- Any other pictures that have special meaning to you
We Can Help
Need help creating your photo estate? Here’s some options for you:
- Attend one of our 2020 Saturday Photo Workshops – twelve hours of dedicated time to work on your photos with no interruptions to halt your progress! Click here for more information.
- Hire us to organize your photo collection for you and create your photo estate. Call us at 414-731-1881 or email us at [email protected] to learn more.
- Look for our book on this topic available now on Amazon.com – “A Simple Guide to Creating a Photo Estate.”
