Significance of Wealth | Episode 15
Establishing a Legacy Through Passion Assets with Colleen Boyle, CAP®
What if your collection could do more than bring you joy—what if it could also serve your legacy, your liquidity needs, or a cause you care deeply about?
In this episode, host Tom Ruggie sits down with Colleen Boyle, CAP®, Managing Director and Head of Business Development & Philanthropic Strategy at The Fine Art Group, to explore the role of passion assets—like fine art, jewelry, and sports memorabilia—in strategic wealth planning.
With over two decades of experience advising global corporations, major museums, and private collectors, Colleen shares practical insights on:
- Why understanding which valuation you need is critical (and how often to reassess)
- The rise of charitable giving using tangible assets—and a touching story of a guitar collector’s legacy
- How to unlock liquidity through lending without divesting
- The importance of documenting provenance and involving advisors early to avoid costly missteps
Whether you’re a collector yourself or an advisor helping clients navigate this complex and unregulated space, this conversation offers a valuable lens into turning passion into purpose.
About The Fine Art Group
The Fine Art Group is a leading independent global advisory firm specializing in art, luxury, asset financing, and valuations. With nearly 25 years of experience, the firm supports clients at every stage of their collecting journey through services including Advisory, Art Investment, Art Finance, and Appraisals & Valuations—plus bespoke strategies tailored to each collector’s unique needs.
Operating across 15 international cities with headquarters in New York, London, and Hong Kong, The Fine Art Group offers unparalleled insight at the intersection of art, luxury, and finance. Its growing network of strategic partnerships—including Patti Wong & Associates and Schwartzman&—reinforces its reputation for discretion, transparency, and navigating the global art market with precision.
Contact Colleen Boyle, CAP®
E-mail: colleenboyle@fineartgroup.com
Mobile: 610-470-5340
Office: 212-540-8444
Key Takeaways
For collectors and their advisors, the discussion between Tom Ruggie and Colleen Boyle offers a wealth of valuable insights that traverse a vast swath of pertinent topics. From valuation to philanthropy to borrowing, the conversation unlocks best practices that can mitigate the sometimes overwhelming complexities of collection ownership. While we encourage you to listen to the full episode, we’ve synthesized and shared some of the key takeaways below.
What should collectors and their advisors consider when making an acquisition?
Ruggie and Boyle note that buying passion assets is an area of collecting where the assistance of advisory can often be overlooked. Boyle suggests that collectors should think carefully about their collecting goals, both in the short and long term, when making an acquisition. In the short term, they might consider how an item helps them meet their objectives for building out a collection that reflects their passion. Longer term, they should be mindful of what she terms “the end game.” Collections can be used to support different causes and non-profits, they can be left to heirs, or they can be sold for financial gain.
Boyle acknowledges that many collectors, driven primarily by passion, add to their collections without considering those longer-term outcomes or the investment potential of the items. So, advisory can help collectors think through those end-game aspirations and how an item fits their intent.
What is the key difference between passion assets and more traditional investment vehicles like stocks?
As noted above, many collections are born from pure passion. Boyle notes that, unlike traditional investing, collecting can be a very experiential pursuit. “If your passion is wine, and you like to not only drink the wine, but maybe you want to have a portion of your collection that is an investment-quality wine, you have the opportunity to go to wine tastings. You have the opportunity to travel, both within the United States and internationally. You get to go to the vineyards. It’s very experiential.”
The same applies to car collectors, who visit exclusive events or drive on race tracks, or art collectors, who might meet a favorite artist or visit art fairs and gallery openings. These experiences offer utility or value apart from financial appreciation.
Boyle also touches on another important difference: the collectibles markets are unregulated, leaving new entrants to the market more vulnerable to making errant or suboptimal decisions due to inexperience.
What are the different methods of valuation relevant to passion assets and when is each method used?
One step that collectors can take to introduce more rigor and organization to managing their collections is having their assets valued. However, there are myriad reasons why collectors might value their assets, and many of these reasons require different valuation methodologies, as explained by Boyle in the episode.
- For risk management purposes – insuring their passion assets – collectors would pursue a measure of Retail Replacement Value, which is the value with which an insurance company would compensate a collector if they lost an item due to catastrophe. It represents the amount of money required to replace the item.
- For planning purposes, collectors would obtain estimates of Fair Market Value. This valuation is used for estate planning, donations, and ownership transfers. Fair Market Value leverages historical auction data (derived from the open market), including buyer’s premiums.
- In other cases, collectors might need a Marketable Cash Value, which leverages similar auction data but focuses on the hammer price (rather than the final sales price including fees). This value represents what a seller might net in an open-market auction sale, and it’s sometimes used for divorce proceedings or to develop a better understanding of potential sale proceeds.
How often should collectors value their collections?
Boyle advocates for collectors to first establish a baseline valuation for their items. With that baseline established, she recommends having a conversation with advisors once annually to understand market trends. This understanding of market movements can inform the necessity of refreshed valuations. She doesn’t recommend annual valuations or even valuations every three years if the market hasn’t moved. However, annual conversations can provide insight into the extent to which updated valuations might be worth pursuing.
What should collectors consider when choosing whether to use their passion assets for philanthropic purposes while living or in their estates?
Collectors have much to consider when determining their philanthropic intent with their passion assets. Boyle explains that these deliberations can vary by collector: “What is [the client] interested in supporting? Is it something that they actually want to see implemented in their lifetime? If so, let’s talk about a strategy and how to execute that.”
Once a collector decides to support a cause during their lifetime, they need to consider the tax implications and the vehicles that might best suit their philanthropic goals.
On the other hand, a collector might be so passionate about a collection that they prefer to live with it and keep it in their estate, which invites additional conversations with advisors around estate planning.
How can collectors leave a legacy through their passion assets?
Whether in life or death, collectors can use their passion assets to establish an enduring legacy. Doing so requires consideration and thoughtful planning, but with a focus on important causes and a clear objective, the impact can be significant. Boyle relays a story (well worth a listen in its entirety) about the Fine Art Group’s work with a prominent guitar collector and his heirs in establishing a donor-advised fund to receive the collection upon the collector’s passing. In selling the collection, the donor-advised fund was able to fund grants for non-profits supporting youth in music. Thanks to this collector’s guitar collection, young people with an interest in music will have the opportunity to pursue it for years to come.
“That’s a legacy that carries on,” Boyle declared. “It was a great way to honor the collector, but also to fulfill his passion – in addition to the guitars – which was to be able to support youth in music.”
What are some of the potential drawbacks of donating passion assets to a museum or other institution?
While many collectors aspire to donate items to a museum directly or to a foundation that will place the items in a museum, this process isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds. “The institution may or may not be interested,” Boyle explains. “Depending on how the gift agreement is written, the institution could also sell it.” Those dreams of a collector’s finest pieces lining the hallowed halls of an esteemed institution may be just that – dreams. Collectors are sometimes dismayed to learn that an item they donated sits in storage, rather than on the walls. That dismay can become regret.
It becomes important, then, for collectors to understand how an item might ultimately be utilized and to plan carefully around gifting arrangements to ensure that the long-term outcome isn’t in conflict with their hopes or expectations.
Why might a collector consider borrowing against their passion assets?
In amassing significant collections, collectors are building a pool of assets that can work for them. Lending against collections has become more prevalent over the years, and for a collector, borrowing against their treasures can serve as a useful source of liquidity.
Collectors might borrow against their collections for several reasons, often relating to short-term liquidity needs. Borrowing can provide a collector with welcome flexibility to avoid selling their passion assets on short notice, which can be a cumbersome process. In some cases, a collector may require liquidity for an unforeseen tax obligation. Alternatively, Boyle references a client example in which a real estate developer had experienced difficulties obtaining a construction loan through traditional financial channels and instead opted to borrow against his large art collection.
That example highlights the merit of a lending structure in which only the collectible assets serve as collateral for the loan, rather than the lender underwriting the assets and the borrower. The collateral-only underwriting process tends to be quicker, and it’s often used primarily for shorter-term borrowing.
There’s so much to learn from this engaging discussion, and we encourage you to listen to the full episode for more of the valuable insights shared above. Among the subjects we haven’t covered here:
- The nuanced process of valuing one-of-a-kind items, like Muhammad Ali fight-worn trunks.
- The importance of collaboration and considering the whole financial picture when making collection-supported borrowing decisions.
- How to blend an investment lens with the passion and emotion inherent in collecting to produce better outcomes.
- How monitoring global trends in taste and demand can impact collection purchase and sale decisions.
The expressed views, thoughts, and opinions belong solely to the host and/or guests and are not investment recommendations or opinions issued by Destiny Wealth Partners or its affiliates. Investment advisory services are offered through Destiny Wealth Partners, LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Destiny Wealth Partners also conducts business under the name Destiny Family Office. Destiny Family Office podcasts are the sole property of Destiny Family Office, and information provided is for informational and educational purposes only. Destiny Family Office and its affiliates are not responsible for any human or mechanical errors or omissions. Parties may not reproduce these podcasts in any form without the express written consent of Destiny Family Office. Learn more at https://destinyfamilyoffice.com/disclosures/