Transfer Ownership into Trust

[Jecks]

Hi everyone,

Has anyone ever transferred their timeshare into a trust? Does doing so effectively remove your title as a "DVC Member" as the trust would technically own the timeshare? Or, would you still be a member and still have all the perks like member cruises/access to member-only events?

We are considering either removing my parents from the timeshare (at the suggestion from an elder attorney) or moving into a trust to better protect our investment. Thankfully there is no immediate reason to do so, but the suggestion comes from a solid place.

The one thing I do know is by removing my parents they will no longer be DVC members and wont be able to take advantage of member cruises or member-only events. Trying to find the least painful way to protect our investment while still providing my parents a sense of control over the investment they made 26 years ago.

Any thoughts, suggestions or personal experiences that anyone is willing to share? Would anyone recommend one over the other?

Thanks!
Kevin

 

[ddubaynavarro]

This is such a tough topic. Are your parents still able to use it and enjoy it? Did they pay for it themselves? If the answer to those questions is yes, let them make the decisions regarding the timeshare. If they are unable to enjoy it anymore, you could just do nothing with it and leave it as is, put it into a trust (although im not sure what value it has, nor is it any of my business), or add yourself to the deed and enjoy it yourself. I am not sure if you could even use it if it is owned by a trust? That might be more problems than it is worth in the long run if it is a smaller point contract.

 

[Sandisw]

How was it titled? I just changed some of my contracts last year to add my adult children,

It is titled Joint Owners with Right of Survivorship, That means if someone passes on, the rest remain owners. It won’t be an issue until there is one of us left,..we have 3 adult children,,,so 5 owners on both SSR and RIV.

We paid for it all and told them that the estate will cover 10 years worth of MFs once DH and I are gone, This way, they have time to decide what they want to do with it, if they don’t want to maintain it after that.

Everyone is now a blue card owner and get those benefits.

 

[Jecks]

Yes, they are both healthy and able to enjoy it at the moment. they did purchase all of our points (400 OKW and 150 VGF) and my brother, sister and I are on the deed(s) already. My parents want to make sure that their hard-earned money/investment are protected and initially told me to have them removed from the deed - a move that is easy enough to make, but super sad and would cause my parents to lose their DVC member status. That's why I was asking about putting into a trust which already exists. I'm just not sure how that would work in Disney's eyes because technically none of us would own the property and the trust would. I guess I need to call them to find out.

 

[Sandisw]

Yes, they are both healthy and able to enjoy it at the moment. they did purchase all of our points (400 OKW and 150 VGF) and my brother, sister and I are on the deed(s) already. My parents want to make sure that their hard-earned money/investment are protected and initially told me to have them removed from the deed - a move that is easy enough to make, but super sad and would cause my parents to lose their DVC member status. That's why I was asking about putting into a trust which already exists. I'm just not sure how that would work in Disney's eyes because technically none of us would own the property and the trust would. I guess I need to call them to find out.

If you are all on the deeds, and it is titled as I mentioned above, everything should be protected as that is what MA told me when I was adding my kids,

They said that type of ownership just continues to remain in the names of all other owners.

However, you may have other reasons to change ownership to a trust.

 

[RoseGold]

This is a much more complicated topic than these answers, or even the question. A trust has trustees and beneficiaries, which have varying rights in DVC.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/q...dcv-ownership-into-a-revocable-trust.3522822/
There are other options also used frequently, like company ownership. If I were buying for Blue Card, I would title into a company in my home state, which could probate here, not FL. Then, whoever is on the robust board of that company would have blue card status, and the board could be changed, as could the ownership of the company, like any company... But, my estate will be probating companies anyway.

This should be part of a discussion with your estate attorney about a larger plan for the estate, and there are definitely perks to the trust.

 

[i<3riviera]

͏

 

[Ginamarie]

It's going to be hard to get a good answer to this here on the boards. You're talking about an issue that involves both real estate law and estate planning (both of those laws are different from state to state). In elder planning, attorneys will often suggest moving assets out of the names of the older family members. This makes sense if you're concerned about medical expenses down the line and maybe the need for medicaid if, at some point, they need to go into a long term care facility. It's a tough decision though! A lot of people do not like losing control of their assets, and medicare has a "lookback period" which has increased over the years, so that if say you moved everything into a trust now, but mom needs medicaid for a serious illness/long term care next year, the transfer will have been for naught because you're still withtin the lookback period.

This is really something your parents should be discussing with their attorney and financial advisor, and asking ALL of the questions they need to until they're satisfied in making their decision. Oftentimes, there's an "easy solution", but that may not be the best solution to meet their needs.