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Nicole Garton 00:00:02 Hello and welcome to Your Estate Matters presented by Heritage Trust. Your Estate Matters is a podcast dedicated to everything estates, including building and preserving your legacy. If it's estate related, we'll be talking about it. We're having the conversations today that will help Canadians protect their families, their assets and their legacies tomorrow. Hello and welcome to Your Estate Matters. I'm Nicole Garton. Today we're exploring a question that comes up in almost every estate and downsizing conversation. What do we do with all the stuff, not just the financial assets or the legal documents, but the objects that carry personal meaning the photo albums, the jewelry, the furniture, the collections. For many families, these items are the most emotionally loaded part of the estate conversation, and yet they're often the least planned for.
My guest today has built a technology platform to address exactly this challenge. Heather Nickerson is the founder and CEO of Artifcts, a privacy-first digital platform that helps people attach stories, provenance and context to their physical belongings before launching Artifcts. Heather spent a decade as a CIA intelligence analyst and later became a privacy expert.
Nicole Garton 00:01:23 Experiences that helped shape both her approach to data security and our understanding of how important it is to preserve the stories behind the things we own. Heather's journey into the space is personal. After her mother passed away, she found herself surrounded by a lifetime of possessions with no way of knowing the stories behind them. That experience inspired her to create a platform that now serves over 17,000 users, helping individuals, families, and professionals bridge the gap between physical objects and the memories we carry. Heather, welcome to Your Estate Matters. I'd love to start with a story about your mother. So you've described standing in her living room after she passed away, surrounded by all her things and realizing you had no idea what any of them meant. Can you take us back to that moment?
Heather Nickerson 00:02:17 Sure. It's a little emotional to me, so I will apologize in advance. But it was the backstory, I inherited 6000ft² of stuff. And I’m the eldest and only girl. My two brothers said, “good luck with that. Don't toss out anything important.”
Heather Nickerson 00:02:32 “And when you're done, send us the cheque.” So I got the job every weekend. I was working in a private security sector every weekend, flying up from DC to Boston, driving down to the Cape and trying to figure out what to do with all those items. So I will fully admit, I found myself one day standing in her closet, holding a Tiffany's vase and absolutely bawling my eyes out, like really ugly alligator tears, because I didn't know what I was supposed to do with the vase. And that may sound really silly, but in this instance, my mother; a bit of background, she was an antiques collector. She was her family keeper and I didn't know. Was this just an item that she had? And it had real, like family significance or value? Was it something she loved and she never used because she was afraid of breaking it? Or was it a gift that Aunt Mildred gave her years ago? And she wasn't particularly fond of Aunt Mildred, and therefore she'd be rolling over in her grave if I kept this item, like I had no idea.
Heather Nickerson 00:03:38 And it just…I think the grief collided with the stress and I couldn't stop crying.
Nicole Garton 00:03:46 So that is probably not an uncommon story. So. Was that the genesis of you creating this company? Tell us about that.
Heather Nickerson 00:03:57 That was, I think for me, like the single point of, “okay. There's got to be a better way to do this.” Once I finally stopped crying and that was really, you know, it was. It took me almost two years to finish, kind of going through all of her items and essentially closing out that part of the estate. And when I was done with that, I reflected on like, wow, I can't be the only person going through this, right? You know, The New York Times estimates $3 trillion of durable goods in legal terms, tangible assets being passed from Boomer to Gen X. And although I was on the earlier wave of that, it still happened. And that moment with that vase and then everything else that came after it, all the family photos, all the jewelry, like all the things I had so many questions but no answers about.
Heather Nickerson 00:04:48 That's what led me to say there's got to be a better way to do this. And that's what led to starting Artifcts.
Nicole Garton 00:04:53 So your background isn't…I don't know what a typical background would be, but you have a really interesting background. So you were a CIA analyst and then worked in privacy. So how did that very interesting work experience guide you creating this company?
Heather Nickerson 00:05:12 Yeah, that's a great question. So for me, when I looked at what was out there, there were a ton of inventory apps, right. You just upload the photo. Your mom has five couches, dinnerware for 12, whatever it happens to be. And there were tons of story apps like record a memory, tell your story, make an interview, do a podcast. And none of them were particularly secure. A lot were private, but some were open and sharing. And when I started talking to other people, like, what were they doing? The answers I got were everything from, well, we post stuff on Facebook and see who wants it.
Heather Nickerson 00:05:48 You know, we really don't do much of anything. And that really again, it came back to how do you combine the privacy and security while still enabling the story and the memory to be passed down. And how do you take all those different pieces of data? Right. Like, my job at the CIA was an intelligence analyst. So having to sort through reams of data and picking the most relevant points, that's what really led us to the backbone of what has become Artifcts. You can take any number of data points, be it sentimental, be it financial, be it factual, historical, contextual, put them together and then privately and securely share it with your family. Share with your estate planner. Share it with your insurance agent. If you want to make it public, you could because we again, we heard from folks who sometimes wanted to make things public as a way to memorialize their loved ones. But kind of all those lessons learned from my past, I'd say two different careers before this led to how we built out Artifcts.
Nicole Garton 00:06:51 So let's just get concrete about it. Like, say, somebody in their 60s, they've got, you know, a home full of items and they want to use your service. Like what does it look like and what did they do?
Heather Nickerson 00:07:04 So hopefully we made it very easy. You can download the app or go to the website. And then you snap a photo and you can either add audio or video if you want, instead of a photo or in addition to a photo. And then you can tell a short story. It could be five words. My mother gave me this, and if that's what matters, that's what matters. It could be five paragraphs, five pages, you name it. But the story could be long or short. Click save. You've made an Artifct, and you can think of it as kind of your personal digital museum or your personal digital scrapbook you can add to your collection over time. Again, you can privately share with family, friends, people helping you prepare for your legacy and your estate.
Heather Nickerson 00:07:47 So it's really not hard to get started. I think most folks often say that the hardest part is picking out which object to start with first.
Nicole Garton 00:07:56 Okay, so then they've snapped a bunch of photos And then. So what does that look like? Does that go into a spreadsheet or is there a website or like what is the user interface and what do they do with that?
Heather Nickerson 00:08:10 Great question. So user interface there is a website so you can view your entire collection online. You can view it as a timeline. You can view it as a list view or simply as a grid or even flipbook. We also have our app both for Apple and for Android, so you can if you pull it up in the app, it again looks kind of like your personal museum. You can scroll through the different items, click into them, see all the details. The stories say if you know grandma's favorite recipe and she's telling you how to knead the dough for her secret biscuits. You can listen to the audio or see the video and do all of that.
Heather Nickerson 00:08:47 It's meant to be very user friendly. We are part of the ArTech Collaborative, so we worked with them to ensure that anywhere you go on our site or in the app, it's safe to go. You can click to enlarge a photo or to download the item or download the spreadsheet if you're doing kind of, again, estate planning or insurance purposes, but you're never going to. We have no third party advertisers. We have no kind of sneaky, oh, we got you. You're going somewhere else from the site. If we built it to be a very closed, secure platform.
Nicole Garton 00:09:19 Tell me about the use cases. So would it be as a mechanism to allocate personal items? Is it a way like I think you mentioned provenance or providing value. Is it for insurance? What are the end use cases of this tool?
Heather Nickerson 00:09:32 So all of the above would work. I would say most of our members are in one of two camps. One is if you're planning for your legacy or your estate, your Artifcts, the items like the family heirlooms and keepsakes that you plan to pass down.
Heather Nickerson 00:09:46 So you're adding the story, you're adding the family history. Maybe you're even attaching documentation like an appraisal or a receipt or a certificate of authenticity. The other half of our platform, they're using it when they're downsizing or decluttering. They may be feeling completely overwhelmed by, like, I have all this stuff and they are worried if they get rid of it, they're going to lose the memories and the stories behind it, but they don't have the space to keep it all. And I will fully admit, going through my mother's estate, I kept a fraction, a small fraction, because I didn't have the space for it. So a lot of home organizers would say, oh, just take a photo and then let it go. We've taken that one step further. You can take the photo, add the details, add the audio, add the video, put it all together so you have a lasting memory. And then we have these custom tags you can easily sort and search. So I have an entire category for mom's estate.
Heather Nickerson 00:10:45 So rather than scrolling through, you know, 40,000 photos on my phone, I can simply open up my Artifcts collection type in mom's estate and up pops all the items I kept from her estate.
Nicole Garton 00:10:57 I'll save. You've used it for your own family's items, is that right? And so what's your vision that you, when you pass away, that your children will have access to this? Like what does this look like?
Heather Nickerson 00:11:11 Our hope is that it's no different than your physical assets sitting in your house. So when you pass away, you essentially would inherit your children or heirs would inherit your Artifcts. And we built the platform and we even have not just one legacy contact, but two legacy contacts. And a great example is my primary legacy contact: my husband. But we often travel together, sometimes without the kids. So my second legacy contact with someone other than my husband, we really wanted to ensure, again, the same way you'd pass down, be it a piece of jewelry or a piece of artwork.
Heather Nickerson 00:11:43 You also pass down the Artifcts so all that work you put into creating them, it's never lost, and your family gets to have your story told on your terms along with, you know, again, if you add audio and video, that is such a gift for the next generation.
Nicole Garton 00:12:00 Well, this is really neat. So you use the phrase bridging the gap between stuff and story. So tell me a little bit more about that. So you've got a picture of a recipe card or a valuable painting. And what's the vision of that? That it will be shared with family members or, tell me about that.
Heather Nickerson 00:12:19 So I'll give a great example. My husband and I love an artist. He's native to Brooklyn. We bought one of his paintings and our kids think the painting is hideous. It's got bright neon colors, kind of graffiti in style. However, there's a really important story about it. For us, when we bought it, it was during Covid. My husband had just had surgery.
Heather Nickerson 00:12:40 The message, the one of the lines of graffiti on the painting is nothing to say but someone to say it to you. So it really spoke to us like growing old and gray together. And we often joke that if our kids knew nothing about the painting, it would be the first thing they put out on the street for free. When we're gone.
Heather Nickerson 00:12:59 And we know our kids like they would in our heartbeat, be like, yeah, that's going. See you. So we Artifct’d it. And we included the entire story about why this means so much to us, why we love it. We also included the receipt. We included the 27 pages of correspondence back and forth with the artist because, again, it was during Covid, we had to figure out, how do you ship this four foot by four foot painting from Brooklyn to DC? And then we also included an appraisal report and also the insurance documentation. So all this put together, we also then have a platform.
Heather Nickerson 00:13:33 There's a field called in the future. So you can give your loved ones instructions if you know you're going to bequeath something, who's getting it, what is their relationship to you and what is their contact details. So in that we've bequeathed it to a certain child that we think has the best chances of not getting rid of it, you know, but it's all there. And the whole point is that it's not, “Dear children, one of you is getting what you may think is a very ugly painting,” it's, “Dear children. Here is the story behind the painting. Here's all the documentation. If you don't want to keep it, we're going to be gone. We're not going to know.” But also, “dear children, this does not go out on the side of the street for free. This goes to Christie's to be auctioned off or pick your auction house of choice.”
Nicole Garton 00:14:18 So let's talk about the concept of legacy and stuff. Like I think they call it the boomer burden. So maybe there's a lot of resentment often with the Gen-X kids or the millennial kids that they don't want the three generations of China and the figurines and stuff like that, like, how are things changing and what does this look like in terms of what people think of as legacy?
Heather Nickerson 00:14:45 Yeah, really that topic is great for a discussion because I think depending on where you sit, are you at the very beginning or the very end of the boomer generation where you are kind of Gen X? It can be a burden.
Heather Nickerson 00:14:59 We joke that it's a stuffed tsunami. What we have seen is that when, say, the boomers' parents or grandparents take the time to add in the story and the meaning behind the item, it increases the chances the next generation actually wants it. So it goes from being, “oh, that's a China set for 12. I'm never going to use it” to being like, “oh my gosh, grandma and grandpa got that when they were stationed in Liberia in 1957. And there's a really fascinating story about it.” And maybe, you know, “I may not have space for the entire setting for 12, but I'll take the teacups and the saucers and maybe my brother will take the pitcher and the platter, and maybe someone else will take the plates.” So what we have found is that there's this whole myth, right? That no one wants your stuff. That couldn't be further from the case when you actually know the story and meaning behind it. Not saying that everyone wants everything, but there's a better chance things end up being rehomed or even upcycled if there's a story attached to it, which is great because it keeps things out of the landfill.
Heather Nickerson 00:16:11 It helps circular economy and it helps preserve, I think, the family histories and stories and memories without having that guilt of, oh my gosh, now what do I do with it? Or, you know, why do I even have this?
Nicole Garton 00:16:25 So how are you going to let people know about this? Because I think now I'm the president of a trust company. People die. We have homes full of items we will give, often with no instructions. We will give children first dibs to receive items, and we'll mediate or arbitrate that. And it's actually very interesting. Some families are incredibly enmeshed and deeply invested in the stuff. And some families are just like, chuck it. So it's quite different. But we'll allocate the personal items as best we can. And then we often are using online garage sale type services, like one of them is called Maxwell. So we actually are getting value for ordinary items, although certainly the meaning isn't being kept. But how can we better educate professionals in this space, whether it's lawyers or if it's trust officers or if it's appraisers? Because there is going to be this incredible tsunami of stuff.
Nicole Garton 00:17:25 And you're right, like, it would be very sad to have it in the landfill or to lose the story. So how are we going to communicate better ways to deal with this and, and distribute these things?
Heather Nickerson 00:17:37 I think it's a two part approach. One is there's. Right, right right, right. Like have that thought leadership stance or do podcasts like we're doing today. Like having these conversations in arenas where it's easily accessible for those to find if they're searching, like what to do with Grandma’s China or, you know, I just inherited a family heirloom I don't want. What am I supposed to do with it? So putting informational content out there is critical and it gives people not just, you know, use this product, but it's here's four different pathways depending on where you are on the scale of I keep absolutely everything or I'm an absolute minimalist and I don't want it. I think another part of that is also going to educational conferences and presenting and speaking. And I think sometimes for us at least, we've seen that hands on, like doing a demo with someone at a conference or even just, you know, a networking event when they see it and they see how powerful and easy it is.
Heather Nickerson 00:18:34 Like at that point it's, “I no longer have to do any talking,” like they're off and playing with it and they're testing it and you see the light bulb go off. But I think one of the big impediments right now is there's so much in the media just across national and regional publications. That's this false narrative of no one wants it. It creates this burden, and there's really nothing you can do with it other than taking a photo. and that's where I just want to scream and say, there's so much more you can be doing. Even if you're not using a technology like Artifcts, start with a notebook. You know, if you did one item a week that you told a story behind and your family knows where to find that notebook. Think of the gift that is for them.
Nicole Garton 00:19:19 You know my great grandfather, who I never met. He wrote a book like, sort of full of quotations and his favorite writings and sort of his lived wisdom and experience. And I actually have a copy of that, and it's so precious.
Nicole Garton 00:19:36 It's probably one of the most precious things I have. It's like this gift through this wisdom and this connection through time. And I think people underestimate that because if we think about wealth as, “yes, it's financial assets, but it's human assets.” It's ourselves, it's intellectual assets. The things that we know, it's our social assets, it's our relationships. And it can actually be items that can have incredible importance, and whether it's valuable art or jewelry, or if it's just maybe like a handprint of your child when they were just a newborn, you can't quantify the value, sometimes 100%.
Heather Nickerson 00:20:15 And we call that the softer side of legacy, right. There's the accounts. Sometimes there could be trusts. There could be, you know, donor advised funds. There could be all these things you do to, I think, leave a financial or like a very philanthropic legacy. But then it comes down to these like, again, tangible assets, the fancy term. But our stuff and it's often Nana's needlepoint cushions that you'll have family members fighting over because there was only one Nana.
Heather Nickerson 00:20:45 There is no other way. Like no one else is going to make these cushions that you can't go buy them in a target. They are part of family traditions and memories of holidays at Nana's house for 50 plus years. And it's those little things I think we don't often think about or realize until after the fact, but that's what I found with my mother. It wasn't, you know, the artwork, we actually sold most of it. We didn't have space for it. The jewelry, yes, I kept it, but it doesn't have a lot of meaning to me, so I don't really wear it when someone asks me. Oh, what's the story behind that? I don't know if she liked it, but I wish I had the story for my daughter. But it's the things that I remember from my childhood, like the cookie cutters or the cookbooks or the mixing bowls. Those were the things that I kept that to this day my daughter knows. Like those are, you know, the things I want her to keep because they tell a part of our story.
Heather Nickerson 00:21:39 So I think it is very easy to overlook those items. And that's where I think you lose so much of the family history and memories, because unless you take time to capture and preserve it, it simply becomes stuff to the next generation.
Nicole Garton 00:21:56 What did you do with the Tiffany vase?
Heather Nickerson 00:21:59 So in the end I kept it, partly because when I sent the photos back home and my then young daughter was in her princess phase, she thought it was the most gorgeous vase she'd ever seen. And she was like, mama, like, can I please have that for my room? And I was like, all right, perfect. He's got a new home.
Nicole Garton 00:22:18 So I had to ask, what happened to that?
Heather Nickerson 00:22:23 Transported back on a Delta flight wrapped in many layers of bubble wrap.
Nicole Garton 00:22:29 So if someone's listening today and they want to start preserving stories behind their family's precious belongings, what's the first step they can take?
Heather Nickerson 00:22:39 The first step is to make a plan, right? I'm sure with your clients you sit down to do a trust or an estate plan.
Heather Nickerson 00:22:45 It's probably not done overnight. And I think when you're thinking about all of your keepsakes and memorabilia, it's the same. I'd say approach is you're not going to capture everything overnight. So maybe decide what's most important to you. You know, if you're starting an estate planning process. Like my husband and I went through and we took care of the financial accounts. We took care of the philanthropic donations, who took care of the children's and the trust and all of that. So if you're starting with your tangible assets, maybe you start with the family heirlooms that have been part of the family for generations. Or maybe you pick a room, maybe it's the living room or your bedroom. Maybe you pick a collection of items like jewelry or artwork, but make a plan with what you're going to start and then give yourself an actionable goal. A great suggestion is one item a week. You could choose to use Artifcts, or you could honestly create a notebook or Google Doc, but somewhere record the story and make sure it's shareable.
Heather Nickerson 00:23:45 But again, if you map out, we're going to go room by room or kind of, you know, most important to least important or most valuable to least valuable, and you give yourself a goal to do so. It's amazing how much progress you can make and it gives you a really good sense of wow, like I am. I think a lot of us approach estate planning and even trust and wills as if it’s end of life. It can be concerning. This puts the power back over to you, like you're able to tell your story and ensure that those memories and histories live on.
Nicole Garton 00:24:18 So amazing. How can people find you?
Heather Nickerson 00:24:21 So you can find us at artifcts.com that's A-R-T-I-F-C-T-S. Or you could download our app. We're available both in the App Store if you're using Apple products or in Google Play, if you're using Android based products.
Nicole Garton 00:24:38 Amazing. Thank you so much, Heather. I've really appreciated your time.
Heather Nickerson 00:24:41 Thank you. Nicole. Likewise.
Nicole Garton 00:24:46 Heather, thank you. This has been a really thoughtful and practical conversation. What stands out for me is how often we overlook the personal belongings in estate planning and transitions, and how much is lost when we do. The stories behind our things are a form of legacy that no will or trust document can capture on its own. And yet, as Heather described, there are now tools available that make it possible to preserve those stories in a way that is secure, collaborative, and accessible to families and professionals alike. For anyone listening who's thinking about their own estate plan, helping a parent downsize or administering an estate, here are the key messages. First, start the conversation early. Do not wait until someone has passed away to try to piece together what their belongings meant. Second, recognize that personal property is an emotional asset, not just a financial one. How you handle it can either bring a family together or pull it apart. Third, explore the tools that are available. Platforms like Artifcts are making it possible to preserve context and connection in ways that were not available even a few years ago.
Nicole Garton 00:25:51 Heather, thank you again for sharing your expertise and your personal story with us. And thank you to our listeners for joining us on Your Estate Matters. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone who may benefit from it. Join us next time for another practical conversation about estate planning, estate administration, and legacy in Canada. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered individual, legal, financial, or tax advice. Make sure to consult the advisor of your choice to advise you on your own circumstances.
Multiple Speakers 00:26:26 Thank you for joining us for this episode of Your Estate Matters. If you like this podcast, make sure to follow it on your podcast platform of choice. Whether you're planning your own estate or you're acting as executor for somebody else's heritage, trust can help partner with Heritage Trust to protect your family, your assets, and your legacy. If you'd like more information about Heritage Trust, please visit our website at HeritageTrustCompany.com
Nicole Garton 00:26:57 This podcast is produced by Podfather Creative.
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