Newbie and Need Advice

[Raven01]

This is amazing, and a wonderful gift.

I’m going to chime in with others about doing the homework. There are a lot of ways to set this up, and it’s important to do it so it works for your daughter. A lawyer is a good idea!

Definitely consider a mix between resale contracts, and at least 100 points direct from Disney (for the perks - the AP discount is the one I think will be the most helpful). Remember resale contracts cannot stay at Riviera or other new resorts - so if that is a goal, you need enough direct points for that.

Check out some of the popular resale sites for ideas on resale contracts. I’m waiting on ROFR now for AKV, which might work well for your group and is not much more than SSR.

You could pick two or three home resorts, so that they have options.

And I think you can still surprise your daughter! Question for other folks - if the OP puts a resale offer in, can he put the deed in her name after ROFR? I could see the OP wanting to get all resale contracts through ROFR before telling his daughter.

 

[AaronEuth]

While I do think you should buy 100 points direct, the biggest benefit of direct is the cheaper annual pass. However, the DVC Gold pass does traditionally have blackout dates during Christmas, New Years, and Easter Weeks. Given that they are school teachers, that may not be a good pass for them.

 

[ELMC]

Not to be a Debbie Downer or anything, but aside from the fact that this is very generous of you, I'm seeing problems all over the place.

First, no offense to the wonderful members of this board, but if I'm spending $200,000 on anything I'm not doing so based on information I've gathered from an internet chat forum. To that end, please feel free to disregard anything I say as well.

That said, I see four major issues (aside from the ones stated above):

1) What is she going to do in year 11 when you stop paying for dues and annual passes?

2) $200,000 is roughly 2,000 points. I see tremendous difficulty using and managing that many points, especially given that she presumably has no understanding of how the DVC system works or how to use it. While a nice gesture, this is also quite a burden. There will be wasted points, no doubt about it. Are you ok with that?

3) While very generous, this gift you are giving her is actually exerting an incredible amount of control over her life. You're basically locking her into vacationing into ONLY WDW for the next 10 years and then likely pulling the plug in year 11 when she can no longer afford it.

4) Not for nothing, but if I were to give someone the equivalent of $400,000 (or if I were receiving it for that matter) I would prefer it be done as CASH either in the form of a trust or an annuity. $200,000 in DVC points seems like a bizarre gift to me.

My advice, for whatever it's worth, would be to buy her a reasonable amount of points and let her try it on for a while. You can always buy more later if it's needed.

Finally, and forgive me for asking but this post is a little out of the ordinary around here. So I have to ask...are you serious or are you messing with us?

 

[eMoneyBug]

Teach them about rental !!! With that many points, if you can't cover the dues, you can rent 1/2 and cover them. 1/4 direct points from Riv, 1/4 GF resale, 1/8 Bay Lake, 1/8 Copper Creek, 1/8 Poly, 1/8 Aulani.

Blue Card done. Each resort, I selected is not expiring for many years and typically ranked higher on most average DVC member surveys.

Done

 

[AnnaS]

Beautiful and a wonderful gift. Many memories will be created. I hope you will be in many of them too.

All great advice above.

I personally would only buy at two resorts. I hate pooling my points with my sons when we travel together (they each own a small contract/different resort than mine). We can never book all of us at one resort at the same time. If they are going once a year, and will have enough points to make that reservation (plus a few extra points) - then purchase enough for another week at another resort for the same number of points (with same buffer).

Very important to split up the contracts. I would definitely consider purchasing one resort direct and one resort resale - same UY.

For someone who can buy so many points at once and setting up a trust fund for years to come to pay the expenses ............., I will have to assume that the OP has plenty more $$ to leave behind for his "kids". At least I hope so. Giving them the opportunity to pay for future trips (after the 10 years) and or sell some of them if they choose to but also do other things. Help pay for college for the kids (grandchildren), trips to other places, savings, renovations, etc. etc.

Good luck. Start your research and if you have not had conversations with your daughter, start now. Perhaps say you are thinking of going back to WDW and purchasing some points/your friends own, etc. etc. Feel her out.

You definitely cannot surprise her. I gifted my son his points and they had to sign the papers.

Let us know how you make out for sure

 

[tnicks]

I think I'd consider less points, longer paid annual dues. Paying only 10 years, while generous, will most likely place them in a position needing or wanting to sell most of those points.

 

[Bing Showei]

Not to be a Debbie Downer or anything, but aside from the fact that this is very generous of you, I'm seeing problems all over the place.

First, no offense to the wonderful members of this board, but if I'm spending $200,000 on anything I'm not doing so based on information I've gathered from an internet chat forum. To that end, please feel free to disregard anything I say as well.

That said, I see four major issues (aside from the ones stated above):

1) What is she going to do in year 11 when you stop paying for dues and annual passes?

2) $200,000 is roughly 2,000 points. I see tremendous difficulty using and managing that many points, especially given that she presumably has no understanding of how the DVC system works or how to use it. While a nice gesture, this is also quite a burden. There will be wasted points, no doubt about it. Are you ok with that?

3) While very generous, this gift you are giving her is actually exerting an incredible amount of control over her life. You're basically locking her into vacationing into ONLY WDW for the next 10 years and then likely pulling the plug in year 11 when she can no longer afford it.

4) Not for nothing, but if I were to give someone the equivalent of $400,000 (or if I were receiving it for that matter) I would prefer it be done as CASH either in the form of a trust or an annuity. $200,000 in DVC points seems like a bizarre gift to me.

My advice, for whatever it's worth, would be to buy her a reasonable amount of points and let her try it on for a while. You can always buy more later if it's needed.

Finally, and forgive me for asking but this post is a little out of the ordinary around here. So I have to ask...are you serious or are you messing with us?

Please ignore ELMC. He’s been a bit of a downer lately.

With $200,000 points and Platinum annual passes for the family, it might make sense for you to long-term lease a private jet for your daughter and her husband as well.

It would be a travesty if they had all of that magic waiting for them in Orlando but couldn’t afford all the flight costs for the whole family on a teacher’s salary.

Given their work schedule and that they are unlikely to travel during the major holidays, they are probably looking at summer travel. Parks like DHS are really bad about shading, so you may want to also consider long-term employment of a Sherpa or two to help carry their souvenirs around and provide them with cover under giant feather shades (which conveniently double as fans). This does involve securing H-1B visas and a couple more Platinum APs though, so that’s also a cost to consider.

I think it’s important to not move in half measures. My less-generous (read: poor) mom saved and saved, and bought me a used film camera at a thrift shop when I was a child and tasked me with earning my own money to buy the film if I wanted to use it. It ended up instilling a stubborn work ethic I haven’t managed to shake after all these years. Unless you want your hard-working teacher-daughter to continue down the path of working tirelessly to pay for flights and comfort on the trips, please consider my suggestions above.

Echoing what others have said, so many years of wonderful man memories ahead!!! Bless you for being so generous.

 

[poofyo101]

Paying dues shouldn't be an issue as you can rent some point and get them paid for. Could even rent more points and start making some money back too if you do not use them all.
I would buy 100 direct from CCV or Riv. Then split the rest between Poly, Grand Floridian, CCV, and SSR. SSR because the SAP points are cheap. The other 3 because the contracts are longer and each are sought after with them all being very different from each other.

 

[MICKIMINI]

I don't believe this Dad is looking for "cheap", though there is not a well off person that I know that doesn't appreciate getting an honest to goodness deal. Blending direct and resale will add many points to the portfolio and it doesn't seem that the well will run dry anytime soon. I agree that CCR should be the direct contract and I don't think it is unwise to purchase two 100 point CCR contracts or if dedicated weeks are desired that will obviously change the following suggestions:

Another 500 +/- at CCR in two to three contracts on the resale market which should leave about 500 +/- at Yacht Club (my fav) or Boardwalk (yes, it's 2042 but they are living for the now) in two to three contracts. I still think an AKL contract, even if it is smaller and can be used every other year or for a split stay, will be appreciated.. ALL the same UY, which can be a challenge trying to get half a dozen resales to go with direct, but they are out there and not having to nickel and dime will go a long way...

 

[CarolMN]

Are the children's educations fully funded? Personally, I'd much rather know that my kids education is taken care of over 10 years of vacations (albeit special ones).

Have you considered the tax implications (on you and/or your spouse) of such a gift? Off the top of my head, I'm thinking gift tax, "Look Back" laws & Medicare Premiums (if you are 65+). Best to get expert advice on that.

Will the children's father want to dedicate annual vacation time & budget to Disney? Will this turn into an unwanted "obligation" for them?

Those are rhetorical questions - no need to answer. Just more for you to consider.

 

[Jenniebee]

Super nice of you - and generous.

But my questions that come to mind are with that many points, is this somethng they would even want? I mean it sounds great but are they going to want to go away annually enough to use up all those points? Did you do a point calculator to come up with that amount of points? Just wondering how you arrived at that amount. Being teachers, and they can only go during school breaks, I would think using that many points in one year will be tough to pull off.

 

[karen4546]

This is an amazing gift. I would assume that their house is paid in full and their children's college funds are substantial since you are gifting something so wonderful.

I agree with others to NOT buy one large contract and to purchase the CCV direct and purchase several 100/150 resale contracts. Since they will indeed find out when they have to sign the contracts, you may as well tell them that you would like to give them this gift and find out which resort they would like the most. There is no sense buying 500 Saratoga Springs points if they want to stay at the Poly or Beach Club. Also, are they "resort" type vacationers? and do they like club level amenities included with their stay? If so, AKV Jambo is very difficult to book even at 11 months out-club level that is. Oh, and the $9000 + in maintenance fees each year. But it is an amazing gift

 

[anomamatt]

4) Not for nothing, but if I were to give someone the equivalent of $400,000 (or if I were receiving it for that matter) I would prefer it be done as CASH either in the form of a trust or an annuity. $200,000 in DVC points seems like a bizarre gift to me.

@ELMC made a lot of great points, but the one I clipped is, IMO, especially great. There are a lot of costs with WDW that are outside of resort and park passes. Travel expenses, food are all very costly. It would be a "disaster" if they had points and passes, but couldn't afford the plane tickets. Instead, if you setup an annuity with $400K (roughly the equivalent of $200K in points + 10 years of dues), your daughter could use the annuity proceeds to book a vacation. It could be at a vacation to WDW or not. The annuity still leaves a "legacy" without the potential issues of "needing" to spend 2000 points a year.

Keep in mind... a $400K, 20 year annuity would pay out close to $2100 a month. Yes, around $25K a year for 20 years...

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I would also note that lodging and park passes are only part of the expenses of a trip. Food is a huge expense. Travel can be an expense. And, for that matter, will your children have sufficient vacation time to use so many points?