Estate planning to protect the family vacation home

William S. Forsberg (shareholder, Leonard Street and Deinard) has recently published his article entitled The Family Vacation Home: Keeping It in the Family is Hard to Do — It’s More About Cooperation Than Planning!, Prob. & Prop., March/April 2009, at 41.

Here is the conclusion of his article:

The family vacation home is often a cherished asset, and, if it is well managed and maintained, it can provide generation on generation with invaluable enjoyment and lasting memories.  Keeping it in the family, however, requires forethought, planning, and some well-heeled management and cooperation skills–especially the later.

The techniques discussed in the article include:

• fee simple transfers
• holding the vacation home in trust
• holding the vacation home in an entity (partnership, FLP, S or C corporation, or LLC)