Saving the Family Cottage Creative Ways to Preserve Your Cottage, Cabin, Camp, Or Vacation Home for Future Generations

Estate planning for family cottages and cabins

It’s never too early to take steps to preserve a beloved family property for generations to come. Shared ownership of vacation property—especially when the co-owners are family members—can be fraught with problems. The idyllic dream of a cottage getaway can be shattered when co-owners’ emotions, financial concerns, and opinions on how the property should be used come into play.

Fortunately, a solid plan that dictates how the property will be owned and managed can prevent squabbles over the family cottage. This book lays out a roadmap for creating and implementing this plan. It also explains how to identify properties that qualify as heirlooms worthy of a succession plan, and provides time-tested guidance on how to:

• keep the peace among heirs
• prevent a family member from forcing a sale of the property
• keep your vacation home out of the hands of in-laws and creditors, and
• smoothly transition ownership of the property from one generation to the next.

The seventh edition expands on buy-out options for heirs, how to transfer the property to later branches of the family, and when it might be appropriate to form a nonprofit association to hold the property.