Cottages and vacation properties: succession planning
Your cottage or vacation property may represent cherished family memories and traditions. But it also might keep you awake at night, wondering how your children will manage it when you are gone.
For these reasons, it’s important to address the eventual transfer of such properties in your succession planning. Here are the fundamental questions:
• Should the property be kept in the family when we (the parents) die, or should it be sold?
• If the property is kept in the family, how do we arrange things in order to maintain family harmony?
• Are the tax implications or other financial issues impediments to keeping the property?
Discussions with your children will be key in deciding what happens with the property. This document is intended to help shape the conversation and offer options or solutions in response to your children’s views.