Passing on your contract to children?

[timC]

The recent thread about 2042, has got me thinking....

Maybe not for another 20 or 30 years, but I guessing (hoping) that my 2 sons (ages 10 &7) will eventually have families of their own and will want to share the magic with their children, as we do today.

We recently purchased a second contract of equal points value, at VWL. Now with 2 contracts BWV and VWL, there was a natural thought that at some point we'd pass control of these contracts to each of the kids. In fact we even came up with the idea, that the first to produce a grandchild, will get first pick .

I expect to out-live my contracts, but I really think that my grandchildren will make better use from them.

Selling them at some point, has never been concern.

Has anyone else thought about this? I don't recall this topic in the contract details... does DVC offer any provision for this??

 

[tiffany123]

Tim: We recently purchased a total of 300 points at HH. When we purchased, we deliberately purchased 2 separate 150 point contracts instead of one 300 point one. We have two daughters and will eventually pass the contracts to them and their families.
Our guide suggested the 2 150 point contracts for that purpose and said that it's not difficult to pass the contracts to heirs when the time or need arises. We are in our early 50's and expect our children and grandchildren to get many years of enjoyments from the points. We are not thinking of buying another contract at either OKW or VWL and will arrange that to be passed on also.
Either a personal attorney or Disney will handle the paperwork when the time comes for the switch. Not a difficult process to switch according to our attorney---just a name change on the deed.

 

[EROS]

Tim, of course the DVC membership can easily be passed on in your estate. I don't see any urgency in transferring ownership prior. You can easily make reservations for anyone in your family to enjoy. I suppose that transfer would have some merit if you wanted your children to take over the maintenance fees; we've decided that we'll offer our son full use of the membership for his family, while continuing to pay the fees ourselves.

 

[drusba]

What you are asking really is a question about estate planning that applies to any real estate interest you might leave to your children. Your DVC interest can be given to your kids or passed along as part of your estate and you can designate which kid gets which interest. It is best to have a lawyer advise you on this and prepare any wills, trusts, and deeds needed. Whatever you do, don't put in a will or other document that becomes applicable at time of death anything like the condition you mention--giving first choice to the kid with the first grandchild. It is seemingly innocent conditions like that, when placed in wills, trusts or other similar documents, which lead to mountains of litigation after a person dies.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Great question. I could see a situation when I might want to pass the contracts along way before I kick the bucket. Heck, I might live in Disney city (can't remember the name, celebration?), or have a condo right next to the Vero resort. My kids could have my contract to come and visit me, and take me to Sonia's for dinners. It would be a nice gift for the grandchildren wouldn't it?

 

[DVCDAVE]

YES !!! We were originally thinking about buying 550 points at BWV last year. But, after mointoring these boards, and posting some questions, we decided to purchase two contracts for 275 points each. One at BWV and the other at WLV, specifically to pass one of them on to each of our two boys (currently ages 8 and 10) when they get married and have a family of their own.

After we completed our WLV purchase in March, we flipped a coin and had the winner choose which resort they would want, and then had our wills modified to include the passing of our DVC interest in case we died before the timeshare interest expired. The lawyer only charged $125 for this modification to our will, along with some other minor changes.

 

[trishy]

We thought of that exact situation when we purchased. We have 3 kids (6, 8, 12) and we ended up splitting the points into 4 contracts of 225 each (that cruise is a killer on points) so the 3 of them each can have one for their families and we keep one - this way we can all vacation together for years to come. We have a trust in effect as well - highly advise putting financial plans/intentions in a will or trust.

 

[mikek]

you should definately think about it as part of your estate planning, but i think if the deed is listed correctly, then theres no need for it to be involved in your will and/or probate. I think if they list everyone with right of survivorship or something like that, if one person on the deed corks, the remaining keep it.

Another question for your lawyer....

 

[DVCDAVE]

MIKEK et al;

Not a lawyer either, but I am a financial planner by profession. Joint with Rights of Survivorship can lead to problems in some cases. We had a situation here at work some time ago that was quite ugly. A 75 year old client (who happened to be a widower) insisted in putting his son on the account as Joint with rights of Survivorship. We did everything short of begging to get this client to see an attorney, but he didn't want to spend the money. Little did the father know that the son's business was failing and the son was finding comfort with a women, other than his wife. In the end the court ordered all the money in the account turned over to the son's ex-wife as part of the divorce decree. In summary, the client lost ALL of his retirement savings.

 

[mikek]

hmmm DVCDAVE... You financial planners always know how to ruin a party-LOL

I own a small business and i always get a chuckle when i go the the accountant/ financial planner without my wife - they always tell me all about protecting myself from divorce. When we are both there- everything is fine.

But i suppose you need to pay attention to those type things.


Seriously though- i dont do a darn thing about retirement investments or anything remotely related to estate stuff without my lawyer and accountant giving me advice (and i'm happily married, only 31, with kids who barely walk)- there's so many things like that to keep in mind. I guess i wasnt too clear- i meant to say- get advice because you financial folks have all kinds of ways to do things to achieve the desired results. Sometimes changes to your will can effect other things if your lawyer isnt involved or doesn't look over the whole picture.

-mike

 

[DVCDAVE]

I Agree MIKEK !! Seek the advice of a professional on matters like this. The cost of attorney fees are small compared to not achieving the desired results. Don't practice cocktail circut law, you don't know what the other person's circumstances are, nor weather what they state are factual or not.

By the way, as a final blow to this client, the IRS sent him a bill for gift taxes, as he (or anyone one) is only allowed to gift cash or assets valued up to $10,000 to any one recipient per year with out paying gift taxes. In this case the IRS deemed the change in ownership from single to joint as a gift equal to 1/2 the value of the account (which exceeded $280,000). We had warned him in advance of this, and even asked him to send us a letter telling us to do this and that it was contrary to our opinion.