A cabin trust for Minnesota cabin owners is a new approach to a very old question. How do we keep the family cabin in the family?

While the idea of using a trust as a common estate planning tool is not new, the “bells and whistles” of the Minnesota Cabin Trust make it a new approach.

In the past, when I spoke to clients about passing their assets to their children, the question always arose “what about the cabin?”

Well, the answer before the Cabin Trust was to tell them that the cabin was like the family home, or stocks or bonds. In other words, it was simply another family asset and therefore, the children can decide to keep it, sell it, have one or two kids keep it and pay the other kids off with other estate assets.

However, this was an unsatisfactory answer most of the time because the cabin is not just another asset to the family.  It is in many instances, the most precious family asset.  The cabin is the family’s Kennebunkport!  Not always in net worth, but more due to family memories.

Therefore, this is the one asset that the parents do not want the kids to liquidate and then divide up the cash.  They want the cabin to continue as a family asset where their kids can continue to enjoy it with their own kids.

However, the problem lies in the fact that the kids have very different lives and expectations of the cabin’s use and often there are disagreements about selling the cabin.  Even if they decide to keep the cabin, many disagreements arise over its, use, expenses, taxes etc.

All too often the cabin becomes a nightmare for the kids rather than a precious shared family asset.  A cabin destroys family relationships that often never get repaired.

Therefore, the Cabin Trust helps lay out the parameters of use, equity, taxes expenses etc.  If the cabin is held in a trust, the trust will have detailed rules regarding every aspect you can think of.

When properly drafted, it can continue on as a family asset and because everyone involved understands their role and responsibility so there is nothing to fight about it.  It is all in the trust.

If you want a trusted expert in Minnesota cabin trusts to create your family’s “cabin constitution,” give Joel Mullen a call at 952-921-2444 or fill out the contact form and save your family cabin for future generations!