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Has anyone established a family trust for their timeshares?

regatta333

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Has anyone redeeded existing Wyndham timeshares into a family trust? If so, how complicated was it to take care of on the Wyndham side? Once complete, can reservations be booked online in the names of every owner in the trust from a drop-down menu on the reservation screen?

What did it cost on the Wyndham side?
 

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Has anyone redeeded existing Wyndham timeshares into a family trust? If so, how complicated was it to take care of on the Wyndham side? Once complete, can reservations be booked online in the names of every owner in the trust from a drop-down menu on the reservation screen?

What did it cost on the Wyndham side?

It’s a shame you have not gotten and answer yet. I would be interested in the answer. This reply should bump the conversation up to the top and hopefully the right person will see it. If you don’t get a reply again, you may want to post in the Wyndham timeshare users group on Facebook.
 

ausman

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It used to be that only the trustee was recognised for booking reservations purposes, not the members of the trust. Whether that has changed I don't know but would see no logical reason for it to.
 

Sandy VDH

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I am interested in this too. Also interested to know how difficult it is to get the any PIC weeks also moved into the trust. Anyone done this lately?
 

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Following. I am very curious about this.
 

talkamotta

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I would rather give my money to help pay mfs for my children's future vacations than give them a n inheritance but I wasn't sure how to do it. Maybe I will just out live my money.
 

bogey21

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I am probably in the minority here but this whole Trust thing seems to complicate the matter. If your goal is for your kids to end up with your Timeshares with MFs covered, why not leave the TimeShares to your kids in your will and open a JTWROS Bank Account owned by you and your kids with enough money in it to cover future MFs. This way if your kids want the TSs, they accept the inheritance and with a Death Certificate get your name taken off the Bank Account and have the money to cover the MFs. If, on the other hand, they don't want the Timeshares, they can decline the inheritance and use the money in the Bank Account anyway they see fit. This puts the "do I or don't I want the TimeShares" option in their hands and saves you the cost and aggravation of setting up a Trust...

George
 

CCdad

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With respect to the OP's question, I believe Wyndham will charge the $299 fee for each contract you place into the trust. Others have suggested Wyndham could help add qualifying relatives to the account as the VIP owners pass on ("Tribute"?), but I don't know how easy that process is.

It used to be that only the trustee was recognised for booking reservations purposes, not the members of the trust. Whether that has changed I don't know but would see no logical reason for it to.

I know there's at least one owner on this forum that has a mix of contracts within a VIP account that's in a trust. As Sandy VDH and others have stated, if you have at least one common owner that's also a trustee, all names on the contracts added to that trust account (and the listed trustees) can book reservations.

There's also an issue of "trust" among any and all owners who are added to a VIP account, as technically any listed owner on a contract in the account can make reservations, cancel reservations, move points to RCI or Points Deposit, convert points to offset future MFs etc.

I'd expect that adding your PIC contract(s) to a trust is doable, as Wyndham would be happy to charge the $299 transfer fee per PIC contract. There's no reason for Wyndham to try to disqualify the PIC ownership change into a trust as a "resale" transfer. I'm sure if they tried, it would get called out.

BOGEY21 has a good point: I'd pondered whether VIP owners with extended family might want to put their VIP qualifying contracts into a separate trust together with a bank account to fund MFs for a short period of years. But then the successors to the trust "could" be on the hook thereafter - until they either found a points rental manager like Ron Parise had done, dispose of the contracts in the trust on their own, or use Ovations to walk away. Perhaps even if one succeeds to a trust with the VIP ownership, I wonder if they're legally required to add their own funds into the trust once the money runs out?
 
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easyrider

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Trusts are to protect assets. I don't consider my timeshares assets, they are enjoyable liabilities, so they are not going to show up in our trust. Timeshares will show up in our Wills to who ever wants them, but no one can be forced to accept them.

If we become incapacitated, our power of attorney would have legal authority regarding our timeshares.



Bill
 

Sandi Bo

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I'm late to the party here, but can pretty much confirm that the comments by George, easyride and CCDad are spot on.

My Dad had all of his contracts in his trust. In retrospect, I really don't see much value in that at all. Actually from an inheritance point of view, if they were in his name versus the trust, we would have had the option to not inherit the contracts. Since they are in the trust, we don't. Then again, there is Ovations and we could easily give them back, if we wanted to at any time.

I am too nervous, to change anything. At one time I was going to move it out of the trust and into my name. My understanding is that would be free using Ovations. But Ovations couldn't give me a definitive answer on what would happen to existing reservations. I don't see myself ever not having existing reservations nor do I see myself ever trusting Wyndham to not mess up something in the (free) transfer process. I don't plan to do anything, any time soon.

As far as who can use the rooms as owners - the rooms actually book as 'John Doe Trustee', and therefore only John Doe could check in. Anyone else would need to use a guest certificate. Our workaround was to add an additional (resale) contract with the rest of the family as owners. I picked up a very small resale contract, put 'John Doe Trustee' on the deed, as well as myself and my siblings. I've since added another contract with other family members (nieces and nephews, in-laws) that routinely use the points. I wanted more points, and that allowed additional family members use of the points. I suspect, but couldn't guarantee, that this limits their liability for maintenance to the small contract they are on (and not the whole 1.5M points).

We all get along, really well. We had a very clear understanding coming into this (I pay maintenance fees, they pay me for use, I rent excess points). It works for us.
 
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I'm late to the party here, but can pretty much confirm that the comments by George, easyride and CCDad are spot on.

My Dad had all of his contracts in his trust. In retrospect, I really don't see much value in that at all. Actually from an inheritance point of view, if they were in his name versus the trust, we would have had the option to not inherit the contracts. Since they are in the trust, we don't. Then again, there is Ovations and we could easily give them back, if we wanted to at any time.

I am too nervous, to change anything. At one time I was going to move it out of the trust and into my name. My understanding is that would be free using Ovations. But Ovations couldn't give me a definitive answer on what would happen to existing reservations. I don't see myself ever not having existing reservations nor do I see myself ever trusting Wyndham to not mess up something in the (free) transfer process. I don't plan to do anything, any time soon.

As far as who can use the rooms as owners - the rooms actually book as 'John Doe Trustee', and therefore only John Doe could check in. Anyone else would need to use a guest certificate. Our workaround was to add an additional (resale) contract with the rest of the family as owners. I picked up a very small resale contract, put 'John Doe Trustee' on the deed, as well as myself and my siblings. I've since added another contract with other family members (nieces and nephews, in-laws) that routinely use the points. I wanted more points, and that allowed additional family members use of the points. I suspect, but couldn't guarantee, that this limits their liability for maintenance to the small contract they are on (and not the whole 1.5M points).

We all get along, really well. We had a very clear understanding coming into this (I pay maintenance fees, they pay me for use, I rent excess points). It works for us.
 
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Hi.....totally new to tugs, so not even sure if posting right!!! My wife is the only person on the deed for 2 resale contracts with Wyndham. We wanted to update this so there is no issue with checking in, but also wanted to simplify possibly for the future. This thread was the closet I could find, so hope you can help.
We wanted to see if and LLC or a Trust may be a good way to do this so that we don't have to change the deed in the future if we wanted to add an authorized user or a child or...
How would that work with Wyndham...would you just need to send a Corporate resolution showing who can use as officers or partners?? Or would they have to be visibly named on a deed?? Or if in a trust can you send a certificate showing beneficiaries or is it only the trustee who could access as visible on the deed---sounds like that may be the case but wanted to ask.
Thanks
 

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We have avoided putting our Timeshare Deeds into our Trust mainly because of the $299 per Deed, but it could mean that our heirs might have to go through ancillary probate in each State where the Deed is recorded. For now everything is held jointly with right of survivorship. So the surviving spouse would most likely try to dispose of them later rather than pass them on.
 

dgalati

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Trusts are to protect assets only. No value in a timeshare if Wyndham sets the resale price at $0 with Ovations. JMHO
 

Sandi Bo

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When you title in a trust, it looks like this. The deed reads 'John Doe and Jane Doe, trustees of the Doe Trust'. (I provided the certificate of trust to the closing company). When this contract was added to our account, John Doe, trustee and Jane Doe, trustee were added as owners. This allows both names to be used when booking a room (therefore we can have 2 non-overlapping reservations). Whatever is on the deed is what dictates the owner names in the account. Beneficiaries do not matter, they are not listed on the deed or account.

Wyndham doesn't have any better idea than you about how to title things, benefits of a trust, etc. Especially the salespeople. Do not ask their advice. Ask your financial advisor or attorney. It's helpful to get ideas here on TUG, too. In the end, it's kind of been a crap shoot for me figuring out what was best for us.

Your financial advisor may not get the ins and outs of Wyndham timeshares, Wyndham title and/or sales do not understand the ins and outs of trusts or inheritance.

If your goal is to add additional owners on the account, I would lean toward a deed with multiple people, WROS. I wouldn't be adding trustees to my trust (as that would affect every asset in your trust). Unless your trust is specifically for your Wyndham? WROS seems to serve that purpose. I am not a lawyer, just my 2 cents.

My father was told more than once he could just split his 1M VIP platinum points between his 5 kids. There go to the VIP benefits! That may have been my first insight that the sales people could not be trusted (one of my first owner updates, with my Dad, years ago). I knew we didn't want to split up the developer points and lose our VIP Platinum. As a family we have always operated on that premise - never split it up so we keep the VIP. If a family member wanted out - they wouldn't receive anything, as their 1/5 wasn't worth anything on it's own.

I have a mish mash of how contracts are deeded. I don't plan to change any because I don't want to pay to update the deed. I don't see the benefit in doing so. At some point, when I pass I presume. Someone will likely turn our deeds into Ovation (assuming it's still around).
 
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Thank you!! Sounds like having the names listed is the KEY??
What about an LLC?? How does Wyndham know who can utilize the units if you put title into the LLC since the names of the owners are not listed on the deed?? Would you submit sometype of resolution to show who are the authorized users??
Or is it better NOT to mess around with Wyndham and just be sure the names are of record for who you would like to be able to check in/out without guest certificates??
Thanks again!!
 

Sandi Bo

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Thank you!! Sounds like having the names listed is the KEY??
What about an LLC?? How does Wyndham know who can utilize the units if you put title into the LLC since the names of the owners are not listed on the deed?? Would you submit sometype of resolution to show who are the authorized users??
Or is it better NOT to mess around with Wyndham and just be sure the names are of record for who you would like to be able to check in/out without guest certificates??
Thanks again!!
I do think having the names on the deeds is the key. But I don't know anything about LLC's. When I looked into that several years ago, I thought you could have 2 officers of the company. I can't imagine Wyndham keeping track of that (because they don't seem to keep track of much of anything well). Can anyone with an LLC speak to that? How are the names on the account determined if it's an LLC?
 
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I am probably in the minority here but this whole Trust thing seems to complicate the matter. If your goal is for your kids to end up with your Timeshares with MFs covered, why not leave the TimeShares to your kids in your will and open a JTWROS Bank Account owned by you and your kids with enough money in it to cover future MFs. This way if your kids want the TSs, they accept the inheritance and with a Death Certificate get your name taken off the Bank Account and have the money to cover the MFs. If, on the other hand, they don't want the Timeshares, they can decline the inheritance and use the money in the Bank Account anyway they see fit. This puts the "do I or don't I want the TimeShares" option in their hands and saves you the cost and aggravation of setting up a Trust...

George
I asked about this as I am PR and want to leave my PR deed to my 2 daughters. I was told that the PR could not be split between them, but I have also been told that they could split and be grandfathered in at PR. I did not want their names on the deed at Emerald Grand because if they don't want to pay the maintenance fees or could not afford they are not stuck with it. As far as putting money aside in a bank account, I have put POD's (payable on death) on my bank accounts for my daughters. You simply go to your bank and name your beneficiaries. The POD supercedes any will etc and the money goes directly to the beneficiaries upon your death. Without a POD the bank takes control of your money and depending upon where you live you will have to go through probate before it will be released.
 

bogey21

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POD is fine and works just as you say. JTWROS (Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship) works just as well. With JTWROS you all own the account equally. When one of you dies all the survivor(s) have to do is take the Death Certificate of the deceased to the Bank and have his/her name removed from the account. This also avoids probate...

George
 

Jan M.

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I asked about this as I am PR and want to leave my PR deed to my 2 daughters. I was told that the PR could not be split between them, but I have also been told that they could split and be grandfathered in at PR. I did not want their names on the deed at Emerald Grand because if they don't want to pay the maintenance fees or could not afford they are not stuck with it. As far as putting money aside in a bank account, I have put POD's (payable on death) on my bank accounts for my daughters. You simply go to your bank and name your beneficiaries. The POD supercedes any will etc and the money goes directly to the beneficiaries upon your death. Without a POD the bank takes control of your money and depending upon where you live you will have to go through probate before it will be released.

If you split the PR they would each need to have a deed with a minimum of a million points. Do you have more than one PR deed and is each at least a million points?

Because they are immediate family they can take over your account, or not, after you are gone and would keep the VIP/Privileges status. If they are not on the deed(s) they can decline to inherit them. If they know they want to keep it, it would be less hassle for them if they are on the deed(s) before you pass.

Many families share an account. With some larger families each has their own password to log in and look but only one person makes all the reservations or cancels reservations to avoid problems. But with only two daughters it shouldn't be a problem for them to share the account.
 
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We tried calling Wyndhams deed department and got a response that you have to submit the authorized users names with an LLC, but only the LLC needs to be on the deed. Sounded simple----probably too simple with what I am reading:)
If anyone has experience with putting an LLC on record with Wyndham, I would love your input so I know how to proceed with them--------and to add a spouse.....
It would be great not to have to change the deeds to add or remove someone, especially if you could do that with a corporate resolution showing authorized users....BUT I am curious how they would approach it or IF they would try to verify or???
Am also wondering if that could be a way to sale ownership, especially with VIP or Gold status and possible not loose that and make your sale more valuable or possibly less problamatic for adding or removing family & relatives too.
Thanks in advance for any advice, experience, or input
 
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