Passing on the Family Cottage

One of the areas in which I think many individuals and couples are wilfully unaware of the pitfalls of their actions is dealing with the family cottage. They want to "keep it in the family", which is understandable. They decide to leave the cottage to all of the children equally, ignoring the fact that the kids have different personalities, different financial resources and different wishes. They don't even consider alternative solutions because this way is just so easy to set up and on the face of it seems fair to all.

Unfortunately this common plan for the future of the cottage that could bring nothing but headaches to their children. There are better solutions available that won't end up costing the children their relationships with each other.

This new article by Elaine Blades in http://www.capitalmagazine.ca/ talks about leaving the cottage to the next generation and offers some practical advice and ideas. Click here to read it. If you want to toss around some ideas for leaving your own cottage to your children, talk with your estate planning lawyer.

The attached photo is also from http://www.capitalmagazine.ca/.