Saving the Family Cottage: A Guide to Succession Planning for Your Cottage, Cabin, Camp or Vaction Home

In Saving the Family Cottage, attorney Stuart Hollander explains why problems arise when a vacation home is passed on to the next generation (unequal wealth distribution among siblings and cousins being the usual culprit) and offers practical suggestions on how to address this problem. Hollander suggests how to incorporate succession planning for a vacation home into an estate plan and gives practical advice on such things as which entity is best for succession planning, how to develop a cottage schedule, what to do about an owner who fails to pay his or her assessment, whether to establish an 'endowment,' and how to allocate control between and within generations of owners.

Although Hollander uses the term 'cottage,' the principles of his book apply to any property that a family wants to retain, whether it is an Adirondack camp, an Upper Midwest cabin, a Western ranch, or beach home property on an ocean, lake, or river. Written for the vacation home owner but with information that also will be useful to attorneys and financial planners, the book engages the reader with stories of cottage 'wars' and planning gone awry. Narrative examples and easy-to-follow graphics illustrate the more technical aspects of succession planning for a vacation home. The book makes a complex problem understandable and offers methods to help keep a second home in the family for generations.

The second edition was published to acknowledge the addition of David S. Fry, Esq. as the editor and successor to the author's cottage law practice. Fry brings his years of experience as an attorney and fourth generation cottage owner to the book.

The first attorney authored book written for the vacation home owner describes the problems inherent to shared cottage ownership and the concerns of parents who wish to pass it on.