Have you ever heard that the only normal family is a family that you don’t know very well?  Well as a trust and estate attorney, I can tell you that no truer words have ever been spoken.

I have helped families from all sorts of differing backgrounds prepare their estate plan, and I have learned that it takes some prodding to discover if any underlying issues might complicate the estate.  However, even for the so-called “perfect family,” there’s one question I always have to ask. In addition, you can learn useful information over here.

Do you own a family cabin or vacation home?

Why? Because I know this can potentially be a huge problem for the family if a loved one passes. If the answer is yes, I know we have a problem to solve and the family doesn’t even realize what a huge problem it is.

If you have read my earlier blog posts you will know that this is a problem for any family that owns a cabin. Why? Because if the cabin is left to the children, you have an unmanageable situation left for the children to deal with.

• Who gets to use the cabin and when?

• What if some children want to sell while the others don’t?

• Who will winterize the cabin and maintain the dock, etc?

All of these problems will be magnified when the parents are gone. Therefore it is essential to deal with the issue of the cabin now to preserve family relationships after the parents have passed.

The simple solution to this problem is to incorporate a Cabin Trust or LLC into your estate plan.  The Cabin Trust lays out the important parameters:

• Use
• Equity
• Taxes
• Expenses
• Upkeep
• Buy out provisions

This eliminates many of the disagreements and FIGHTS that the children are bound to have in its absence.

However, with each foreseeable problem that a cabin can create for the kids, the solutions are varied and specific to each family.

One of the big mistakes my adult clients make after they decide to incorporate a cabin trust into their estate plan is to get each child’s input on each decision.  If they do this, they will soon discover why the cabin trust is so important.  The kids will disagree about many of the issues needed to be resolved.

I have learned through some painful lessons that the parents need to act as the parents once again and make the decisions that they believe are the best fit for all of their children.

Every family will have one child that is more vocal than the others and often the parents side with this child over the others because as we all know, the squeaky wheel does get the grease.  However, it is often the case that the louder child isn’t always the one with the most equitable ideas.

When it comes to the “care & feeding” of the family cabin or vacation home, most of the time it is still the parents that:

• pay the bills
• winterize the cabin
• maintain the docks
• keep a schedule for cabin use

Once the parents have passed, these duties fall to the kids. Depending on how well your children work together, this can make things extremely difficult. Especially if one or more children wants to sell the cabin or vacation home at some point. Now, without a cabin trust, you have a family fight in the making that could last for years.

Therefore, the parents must decide how the cabin trust for their family cabin or vacation home will work. And with the help and guidance of a trust and estate attorney who is experienced in drafting cabin trusts (see How to Choose the Right Cabin Trust Attorney) the parents can deal with these issues now and save and even strengthen their children’s ongoing relationships after the parents have passed.