Department Chair: Eric Gurgold, Esq.

When it comes to your estate planning, how should you handle your timeshare? If you have a revocable trust, should you transfer ownership of the timeshare to your trust? Should you instead continue to hold it in your name, or jointly with another family member? What if you do not use it very often and, despite your efforts to get your adult children to use it, it mostly just goes unused? Here are a few things to consider.

The Case for Owning Your Timeshare in Your Trust

Suppose you find significant value in timeshare ownership. You may want to consider retitling the timeshare in the name of your living trust. In Florida and most states, and depending on the contract, a timeshare interest is considered real property. This is important to know because in most states if you die owning real property in your sole name, it will be subject to an often timely and perhaps expensive probate proceeding for it to pass to your heirs. In Florida, probate and attorneys’ fees for a proceeding to transfer a time share can exceed $5,000. Owning your timeshare in your revocable trust is one of the best ways to ensure that your named trust beneficiaries can take ownership of your timeshare after you are gone without going through probate.

When you first purchase a timeshare, make sure you understand the requirements to transfer it at your death. If the seller cannot with certainty tell you how you can transfer the timeshare (and show you language in the contract supporting their answer), you should seek the counsel of an experienced timeshare or real estate attorney before signing the contract. This distinction can make a difference of thousands of dollars of probate costs and frustration upon your death or disability. You will also want to check your contract or with the timeshare management company to determine whether there will be a fee assessed for the transfer of your timeshare from your name to the name of your trust.

Ultimately, the decision to title your timeshare into the name of your trust is a very fact-specific decision. Asking questions and reading your timeshare contract carefully can help you avoid costly mistakes.

Reasons Not to Title Your Timeshare in the Name of Your Trust

One of the main complaints people have with timeshares that they no longer use is the annual maintenance fees or dues assessed to the owners. Some consumer reports estimate that the average timeshare maintenance fees are $800 to $900. In addition, special assessments can be levied on owners when the property incurs damage from a natural disaster, fire, or other mishap, or needs maintenance. Special assessments can often add thousands of dollars a year to the cost of ownership.

If your living trust owns the timeshare, your trust beneficiaries will essentially inherit these maintenance fees and special assessment obligations. If none of your beneficiaries want the timeshare, your trustee will have to try to sell the timeshare on the open market. The market for timeshares is very limited. There are a handful of websites where you can list your timeshare for sale or attempt to rent out your weeks; it is important to note, however, that it is rare for people to sell their timeshares for more than a small fraction of their original purchase price.

Moreover, it can be very difficult to simply walk away from your timeshare while you are alive. Many timeshare companies are experts at pressuring timeshare owners to pay their annual maintenance fees through threats of litigation and using collection companies. As a result, if you feel that your timeshare no longer provides the value that it once did, and if your children or other family members are unlikely to want to inherit it once you are gone, you might consider leaving it out of your living trust entirely. Some timeshare contracts have provisions where the contracts terminate at the death of the owner. If your trust owns the timeshare, however, such a termination on death provision would likely not be applicable because a trust cannot die and the trust would continue to be obligated for the maintenance fees.

Even if your timeshare contract does not terminate at the death of the owner, from a practical standpoint, if the only asset in your name was the timeshare (because all other assets passed via the trust or beneficiary designation), and your family had no interest in inheriting the timeshare, then the timeshare company would have to initiate a probate proceeding to seek payment from the estate for the unpaid maintenance fees. Doing so would not likely benefit the timeshare company, leading them to abandon any claims against the estate for anything more than a reversion of the timeshare’s title to the company.

Take-Away

Owning timeshares can provide benefits for those committed to using them regularly and who know how to maximize the value for themselves and their families. Under circumstances in which a timeshare can continue to benefit a family and successive generations, it may be wise to title ownership of your timeshare in the name of your trust. However, when timeshares become more of a liability than an asset to a family, it is important to review your obligations under the timeshare contract, perhaps with the help of your attorney, and determine whether owning your timeshare in your trust is a good idea. It may not be the right thing to do.

Remember, timeshare contracts can vary widely in their terms and obligations. If you are unsure of your rights and obligations under your timeshare contract, seek the help of your attorney to understand the best course of action for your family when it comes to your estate planning.

Eric Gurgold is a stockholder and is based out of Henderson Franklin’s Fort Myers, Florida, office. He is Florida Bar Board Certified in Wills, Trusts and Estates and holds an LL.M. in taxation from Boston University School of Law. For over twenty-five years, Eric has concentrated his law practice in the areas of estate planning, estate and trust administration, elder law, probate litigation, title insurance claims related to probate issues, business law and taxation. Eric is admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York, Florida and the United States Tax Court. He may be reached at eric.gurgold@henlaw.com or by phone at 239-344-1162.