Preserving the Family Vacation Home

For families fortunate enough to enjoy a Family Vacation Home, the emotional attachment engendered by memories of summers or holidays spent with their family members can make long term planning difficult. If the current owners truly want successive generations to have the same benefits they enjoyed prudent planning is required.

During my years of practice, I have assisted numerous families grapple with the thorny issues presented by their desire to insure the family vacation home is available to be shared and enjoyed by their children, grandchildren and successive generations.

The planning process begins with a discussion of the family vision. The current owners must determine how long they want the home to remain in the family. Obviously, the planning is more complicated for a multiple generation goal than a one or two generation goal.

The current owners need to consider a critical and objective analysis of the family dynamics. Sharing control is difficult in the best of circumstances. In dysfunctional families, it is impracticable.

A successful plan must include a realistic financial plan. When there are sufficient resources to endow the property, planning is much easier. If the property cannot be sufficiently endowed to make it self-sustaining it is particularly important that financial considerations be carefully considered in the event successive generations are likely to have very different abilities to contribute to the cost of maintenance and upkeep of a family vacation home.

A shared vacation home requires a well thought out written document that provides clear guidelines to determine who and how critical decisions will be made, including allocation of use and expenses. Particular care must be given to providing the successive generations the flexibility to adjust the written guidelines. What works well for one generation may not work well for later generations.

For many people blessed with a cherished family a vacation home, wrestling with the difficult issues surrounding the desire to preserve the property for successive generations is overwhelming. However, in the absence of prudent planning, it is more likely that not that their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will not have the opportunity to enjoy.

5/26/15