Should You Include Your Vacation Home in Your Estate Plan

Many of our estate planning clients have Timeshares and Vacation homes, but forget to plan for what happens with those assets after they pass away. Timeshares often transfer differently than real property, and vacation homes are often overlooked in the planning process. It is important when you are creating your estate plan, that you let your estate planning attorney know about these assets. If you acquire these assets after establishing your plan, call your estate planning attorney to review what, if anything, needs to be done. 

In most cases, the Vacation Home needs to be placed in the trust, but many Timeshares transfer outside of the trust. However, this depends on the type of Timeshare.  Within your estate plan, you can determine who is going to inherit those assets, whether they will be sold or surrendered on your death, or if you will leave it up to your beneficiaries to decide what happens with them. 

Here are a few other thoughts to keep in mind about your Timeshare and vacation home after you pass away:

1. Do your beneficiaries live close enough to actually use it?
2. Can they afford the maintenance fees or maintenance of the property?
3. Could you leave the vacation home to those who would most appreciate it while still leaving a different, yet equal, inheritance for others?
4. Is there someone you could name as a Trustee who could oversee the property?
5. Are some family members willing to buy others out of their portion of the property?
6. Could the property be rented out when not in use as a way to pay the bills?

There are a lot of variables that come into play when a person dies, including money, grief, and family tension. Dealing with a Timeshare or vacation property is just one more thing to add to that list, which makes it more appealing to handle the hard decisions regarding the home during the estate planning process.

If you have any questions about setting up your estate plan, or if you want to have your current estate plan reviewed by an experienced estate planning attorney, please call us at 800-244-8814 to set up an initial consultation.

If you have any further questions about estate planning and strategies to shield your wealth, or if you’d like to have your current asset protection plan reviewed to make sure it still meets your needs, please contact us at one of our offices located throughout the state of California 800-244-8814 to set up a consultation.