Morbid question…sorry

linco711

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 17, 2004
We are an elderly couple with one child. At the time we purchased she was too young to be on our contract. I talked with member services about changing the contract to her name. I didn’t realize how costly that would be. Mainly because we added on several times over the years and we’d have to pay $475.00 for each separate contract. So now we’re thinking that’s not practical and we might just sell. If we were to die before selling, what would happen to our DVC? Do we just lose it?
 
We are an elderly couple with one child. At the time we purchased she was too young to be on our contract. I talked with member services about changing the contract to her name. I didn’t realize how costly that would be. Mainly because we added on several times over the years and we’d have to pay $475.00 for each separate contract. So now we’re thinking that’s not practical and we might just sell. If we were to die before selling, what would happen to our DVC? Do we just lose it?
If you both should pass away before changing the deeds or selling, the contracts become part of your estate. Your heir(s) will have to deal with probate in Florida before they can take ownership. Depending on how many contracts you have, this could get quite costly.

There are ways to add your child to your contracts without paying $475 for each one. The cheapest way would be to do it yourself. There is a thread on here somewhere with step-by-step instructions. The alternative way is to use a Florida real estate lawyer to handle it for you.
 
No. It is deeded real estate and would go through probate in Florida. It can be passed down via your will, or if you die without a will split amongst any heirs found via probate.
 


Create a Trust do dump them in. Make your daughter the Trustee. She should be able to use the contracts within the Trust.
I don't think it works like that. She would be granted the right to perform transactions with the DVC contracts, like sell them or change the ownership to herself, but she would still be liable for any fees required to change the deed over to her name.
 


Why don't you sell your contracts and use all or part of the proceeds to buy a contract your daughter will enjoy? You can put her on the deed. We bought a direct OKWE and put our son and DIL on the deed with us. They have all the benefits of a blue card and it will go to them eventually.

You are very thoughtful for thinking this through.
 
Why don't you sell your contracts and use all or part of the proceeds to buy a contract your daughter will enjoy? You can put her on the deed. We bought a direct OKWE and put our son and DIL on the deed with us. They have all the benefits of a blue card and it will go to them eventually.

You are very thoughtful for thinking this through.
That is a great idea, it would simplify things and allow them to right size the points too.
 
Would she be willing to pay the fee in order to own the contracts? I don't know how many you have. I know if my parents gave me the option to pay for the title transfer fee (even it's 5 contracts, that is about $2500, not a lot in the long run) in order to have access to the remaining years on the contracts, I would do it!
 
I would sit down and talk to your daughter first. Of course I can not comment on her or your situation... But keep in mind you are giving her a dues bill every year much less the expense of Transporaton, Tickets, Food and the multtiude of extras that seem to be now part of the equation. You may decide one contract for X points and sell the rest. A small 50 point contract can still provide a week every other year in a studio for mnay parts of the year.
 
We are an elderly couple with one child. At the time we purchased she was too young to be on our contract. I talked with member services about changing the contract to her name. I didn’t realize how costly that would be. Mainly because we added on several times over the years and we’d have to pay $475.00 for each separate contract. So now we’re thinking that’s not practical and we might just sell. If we were to die before selling, what would happen to our DVC? Do we just lose it?
The $475 is the charge by the company that Disney referred you to. DVC itself doesn't charge anything to change the names/ownership on a membership. You could use a different company that might not be as expensive. My family used LT Transfers to change the ownership on several timeshares my dad owned, and they were a lot less expensive than $475 for each one. Or, as someone mentioned above, you can do it yourself for even less - review the first page or so and then the last few pages of the Gratuitous Transfer thread here.
 
I would sit down and talk to your daughter first. Of course I can not comment on her or your situation... But keep in mind you are giving her a dues bill every year much less the expense of Transporaton, Tickets, Food and the multtiude of extras that seem to be now part of the equation. You may decide one contract for X points and sell the rest. A small 50 point contract can still provide a week every other year in a studio for mnay parts of the year.
I agree heartily with this, because the first question reasonably is (IMO), "Will you want our DVC contracts? Or should we stipulate they be sold and the proceeds come to you?"

Finding out how such a bequest must be dealt with to ask her if she wants to deal with that is significant, I think.
 
I would sit down and talk to your daughter first. Of course I can not comment on her or your situation... But keep in mind you are giving her a dues bill every year much less the expense of Transporaton, Tickets, Food and the multtiude of extras that seem to be now part of the equation. You may decide one contract for X points and sell the rest. A small 50 point contract can still provide a week every other year in a studio for mnay parts of the year.

Very good point. I'd honestly be pretty upset with my parents if they "passed down" a timeshare to me, regardless if it was DVC or anyone else. It's a financial burden. The daughter may not even want it.
 
If you purchased WDW resorts, it is likely you have deeds that state you both own the property as husband and wife, or similar language, which means you have what is called a tenancy by the entirety, a form of joint tenancy. That means if one you dies, the survivor automatically gets full ownership without going through probate. (Note that avoiding probate does not avoid any estate tax matters, i.e., if taxes are owed they must be paid but with current laws that prohibit any taxes unless the dying person's estate is in the millions, paying taxes is not an issue for many, although you still may need to file an estate tax form to show that the estate owes no taxes. It is when the survivor dies that the probate issue will arise and you will have to go through probate in Florida in relation to the timeshare even though the deceased resided in a different state. The property will be distributed according that last-to-die parent's will, or if no will, according to Florida intestate rules, which would usually mean the one child if the surviving parent has only one child.

To add the child to the ownership requires the preparation and filing with the applicable government agency in Florida, a new deed for each contract you own. Thus, there will be preparation and filing costs for each new deed and any necessary other papers needed for filing. The deed would reflect a transfer from the existing owners to the same existing owners plus the new designated owner. The new deed cannot be tenancy by the entirety because that applies only to married couples. Thus, the new deed would need to reflect that the transfer is being made to joint tenants with right of survivorship. That would mean that the death of one automatically puts ownership into the other two, and the death of the second person puts ownership into the lone survivor. No probate would be needed until the lone survivor dies. Suggested above is doing the deeds and transfer yourself to avoid other than the filing costs. I view that as a possibility done with fair warning -- if the deed is not properly drafted to contain exactly what it must contain, the result can be a future with someone spending much higher costs to try to change the disaster created into what it was supposed to be.

A second method for ultimately transferring ownership to the last survivor requires a three-step process. You don't add the child to the ownership. Instead you create what is called a living trust. The trust is the designated owner of the property and names the current married owners as the trustees and if one of them dies, the survivor becomes the trustee. Those trustees are also the beneficiaries of the trust but you can also make the child a beneficiary who could become the sole trustee and beneficiary when both parents die. Basically the trust would lay out who actually gets what and what role when someone dies. As such trusts usually control ownership and distribution of most property of value, real or personal, owned by the trustees, Also created (step two) is usually fairly short wills which mainly assures that property that might have been overlooked when creating the trust goes to the trust and distributed according to the trust terms.

Once the trust and wills are created, the current DVC owners would provide transfer by deed of their interests in the DVC property, and probably other property such as their home, to the trust. A main benefit of the trust as the owner is that probate is forever avoided because the trust itself, the legal owner of the property, always survives regardless of the death of any of the trustees or beneficiaries.

Of course, having a trust created and deed transfers made generally requires hiring a lawyer and has far more costs than just doing deed transfers, but it does create the avoidance of probate (but not tax matters) for many things someone owns.
 
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Several have mentioned this thread https://www.disboards.com/threads/s...xisting-contract-gratuitous-transfer.3701707/ .
It isn't super easy, but you can get lots of help from the thread or from the comptrollers office in Orlando. It takes several weeks to process, but the cost is about $20 per deed. So the total is $100 for 5, not $2500. You can add her, or transfer to her.
Whether you do it yourself or use a title company, if you add her, it will not change the "status" of your points. Direct points are still direct points. Older resale points are grandfathered and subject to the member benefits qualification rules in place when you originally bought the points. I believe this is still the case if you totally transfer the points to her, but I would confirm with MA.
Also, transfers are not subject to ROFR. However, they might be subject to IRS gifting rules (and Medicare qualification limits). If the total value is large enough, you might consult a tax professional and maybe not do all the contracts in one year.
 
Very good point. I'd honestly be pretty upset with my parents if they "passed down" a timeshare to me, regardless if it was DVC or anyone else. It's a financial burden. The daughter may not even want it.
You'd be upset if your parents passed down an asset worth somewhere between $20,000 and $100,000? OP says they have multiple contracts, so it seems likely there's some real value here. You'd either get to use it or get to sell it and keep all the proceeds. I don't think I could be upset about that.
 
You'd be upset if your parents passed down an asset worth somewhere between $20,000 and $100,000? OP says they have multiple contracts, so it seems likely there's some real value here. You'd either get to use it or get to sell it and keep all the proceeds. I don't think I could be upset about that.
Well, yes, because of the maintenance fees, I wouldn't want them. I mean, I'd absolutely sell the contracts rather than keep any of them, honestly. But it would just be another thing to have to deal with. But this person seems to think their daughter will want the actual contracts. They should probably make sure that is the case.
 

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