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- HGVC, MVC Vistana
Can a recipient of a trust upon death accept most assets but reject the timeshares?
If your attorney is an experienced wills and trusts/estate planning attorney, you can probably trust that. If not, I'd check with one that is. My understanding, since this is an interest in real property, is that the deed must be held in the name of the trustee in that capacity. Otherwise we'd just "list" our home and investment accounts and car, etc., and not bother with the title of those things. I believe title controls. However, I'm NOT a trust attorney.We have our timeshares listed in our trust on a separate page. So our timeshares aren't titled to the trust, but the timeshares are listed as assets. I think that our lawyer told us that we would be allowed a certain dollar amount and if they weren't worth more than that, then we didn't need to go through retitling everything. Now, it's been 18 months since we put the trust together, so who knows if we did the right thing, but we can always change it. We were assuming that we would like to sell off most of the timeshares before we die, but if we die before we do, then the lawyer said that the list would suffice. Of course, we've added our two HGVCs since the trust was done, so those are missing completely right now.
Can a recipient of a trust upon death accept most assets but reject the timeshares?
If your attorney is an experienced wills and trusts/estate planning attorney, you can probably trust that. If not, I'd check with one that is. My understanding, since this is an interest in real property, is that the deed must be held in the name of the trustee in that capacity. Otherwise we'd just "list" our home and investment accounts and car, etc., and not bother with the title of those things. I believe title controls. However, I'm NOT a trust attorney.
Do remember that a living trust is a legal fiction. There is no such thing as an entity. It does not actually exist. It is simply a legal fiction for estate purposes as a non-probate way to handle your "stuff." A trust cannot sue or be sued, for instance. Only the trustee can.
I helped one of those attorneys make himself a lot of money setting up a trust for me. Complicated and ongoing accounting and tax filing over the years, and then a bunch more costs to unwind it. There is no way it would have made sense for a timeshare. Many other people of my era did the same thing and almost none of those trusts were worth it at the end of the day.Our attorney is an estate planning attorney, so we feel confident that he gave us correct information at the time. I suppose we can always retitle everything if we want to and amend the trust. We did retitle our home since its value is far greater than the timeshares. I'll do some more research.
The whole point of the trust (of A trust) is to avoid probate. No doubt this varies by state, but in California if your "estate" is worth under $150,000, you are a "small estate" and probate is not required to pass things down. A trust is used then to ensure you stay under that $150k threshold. Homes typically have equity exceeding that. So do many investment accounts (retirement accounts like IRA and 401k do not count, nor does life insurance). Timeshares contribute to the value of your estate. Cars do. Country club membership does. Etc. I put the TSs into the trust (that is, I hold them as trustee) simply because it means a mere change in name of the trustee is all that's needed to pass it on, whether to my wife, kids, etc., and I don't have to worry about valuation and the small estate threshold.Our attorney is an estate planning attorney, so we feel confident that he gave us correct information at the time. I suppose we can always retitle everything if we want to and amend the trust. We did retitle our home since its value is far greater than the timeshares. I'll do some more research.
I helped one of those attorneys make himself a lot of money setting up a trust for me. Complicated and ongoing accounting and tax filing over the years, and then a bunch more costs to unwind it. There is no way it would have made sense for a timeshare. Many other people of my era did the same thing and almost none of those trusts were worth it at the end of the day.
The whole point of the trust (of A trust) is to avoid probate.
So you think that big life insurance policy I have that still has my ex-wife as a 50% beneficiary is a bad idea?In hindsight there is another advantage to this. Because there is no pot of gold for my heirs when I die and because I use my excess disposable income for their benefit my kids and ex have a vested interest in rooting for me to live a long and prosperous life...
George
So you think that big life insurance policy I have that still has my ex-wife as a 50% beneficiary is a bad idea?
I was kidding, mostly. Playing off your plan giving everyone a "vested interest in rooting for me to live a long and prosperous life." My ex may not have that "vested interest," especially since her half-million dollar interest in my life insurance ends in 3 1/2 years.Nothing wrong with that at all. Actually I applaud it. We all have our individual circumstances and make choices as to how to best handle our affairs. No one way is right for everyone. My post was only to describe an alternative that most people probably have not considered...
George
As probate costs in CA are quite high and our estate is over the 150K limit we recently had a trust prepared. However "funding" the trust has been quite and interesting path. We have several timeshare with Marriott (worked well for us) in three states (CA, HI, NV) and were planing to put them in the trust so that given that we had not sold the all, the trust could easily pay the MF if needed, dispurse to the benificiaries as they wish, or sell and give away the funds. However upon contacting Marriott the process is long, hard, and expensive based on their "process"(see attached form.) Has anyone gone through this process? Is there a way around it - it is just a simple quit claim deed to pass ownership (and the recording/legal fees) to complete the retitiling. I think this is the right thing to do but to pay 2-3K to just move our timeshare seems crazy? Am I overthinking this issue?
I did move my HGVC timeshare to a trust, and yes I needed to have new deed done to move it to the trust. Since your question is really about the MVC process, I think you will get better answers on their process in the Marriott forum.
Did HGVC charge you to do this (such as the $2-3k by Marriott indicated in the previous post)? Thanks!
Its been a few years, but i think it was something like $600 or $700 to retitle my HGV unit into the trust. I used the HGVC title service thinking that would make the process easier, I am not sure that made a difference, but know it was more expensive than using an outside service. If I had to to do it over, i would a different less expensive title service.
Thanks! So if one had say 4 contracts (multiple HGV "units") you could theoretically pay HGV $600 x 4 = $2400?
To begin the process of Transferring to your Trust, log into HGV.com. Go to the lines in upper right corner, go to Help, then Contact us, scroll down all the way down to Title Change Request Form, Download and complete in Type as instructed, and attached documents required for each specific option. For Transferring to Trust you must provide a copy of current Certificate of Trust dated within last 12 months, including signature and notary page… The form is pretty self explanatory. You send it back to the email provided on the first page and be sure to enter the phrase “Title Change Request” in subject line, then wait for instructions from there… This was current as of 10/2023Curious if anyone has successfully put their deed into a trust?
Ours is currently held as Joint Tenants, but we have almost everything else in a trust.
I found a few old threads where people we complaining of problems with HGVC deeds being held in trust.
I called Hilton and that said no problem. Knowing that people are much more likely to report problems than success, thought i would ask about success.
I can really see why it should matter,....
To begin the process of Transferring to your Trust, log into HGV.com. Go to the lines in upper right corner, go to Help, then Contact us, scroll down all the way down to Title Change Request Form, Download and complete in Type as instructed, and attached documents required for each specific option. For Transferring to Trust you must provide a copy of current Certificate of Trust dated within last 12 months, including signature and notary page… The form is pretty self explanatory. You send it back to the email provided on the first page and be sure to enter the phrase “Title Change Request” in subject line, then wait for instructions from there… This was current as of 10/2023
It was almost 8 years ago that we did this so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I don't recall a charge from HGV. You do have to actually transfer the timeshare on the deed and record that with the relevant county. You could use LT transfers or another title company for that.Is there a fee to do this?
There is a caution to giving property to your children at age 65 instead of waiting until you pass, especially if you have owned the property a long time and it has appreciated. For example, you bought a house for $150k thirty years ago that is worth.$1.1M today. You give it to your kides.now, their cost basis when they sell is $150k. If they inherit it when you pass, their cost basis when they sell is the value when inherited, so if you were to pass next month, their cost basis is $1.1M. They will pay less tax upon sale with a $1.1M cost basis compared to $150k cost basis.