TS Today - Creating a Vision for the Future of Vacation Ownership Issue #159 May/Jun 2018 | Page 11

TimeSharing Today
Page 11
Estate planning for
timeshare owners
By Alex Chris Costopoulos
and Jeffrey T. Weinland
“What happens to my timeshare af-
ter I’m gone?” It’s one of the most com-
mon questions industry professionals
hear from owners.
We’re all getting older. As a time-
share owner, you need to know the
answer to that question, and to plan
accordingly. A little estate-planning
preparation now can avoid a great deal
of hardship and expense for your loved
ones later.
What does happen? It depends on
two primary factors: what kind of time-
share you own, and where you own it.
Two main types of timeshare
ownership exist: “deeded,” and “club”
or “points.”
Variations on a theme
A deeded timeshare occurs when
you own a deed to a week at a resort.
It’s a form of real estate, like owning
a condominium, but for just one week
instead of all year. This can apply to
both fi xed-week resorts (where you get
the same week every year) and fl oating-
usage resorts (where you have the fl ex-
ibility to choose from different weeks in
your ownership season).
In a club or points-based timeshare, a
vacation club owns many deeds at many
different resorts. As a club member, you
purchase a certain number of points,
which you can then exchange for usage
in a club-owned timeshare unit.
In some programs, deeded own-
ers can pay an extra fee to an exchange
company and—instead of a basic week-
for-week exchange—can receive a certain
number of points to exchange for usage. In
this scenario, the owner still owns a deed.
It is technically not a vacation club—just
a way to provide a deeded owner with
greater exchange fl exibility.
What law governs
With the deeded week, the real es-
tate you own may be located in places
such as Branson, MO; Las Vegas, NV;
Myrtle Beach, SC; or Orlando, FL, rath-
May/Jun, 2018
Alex Chris
Costopoulos
Jeffrey T. Weinland
er than in your home state or province.
As such, the laws of the state where
your home resort is located—not the
laws where you live—govern the own-
ership of that real estate. This is prob-
ably the most important thing deeded
owners need to understand.
If you own a deeded week and want
to sell it or give it away, you must do so
with all the same formality required to
sell a house or a condo.
In most states, this means a prop-
erly prepared deed, setting forth the
names of the old owners, the names of
the new owners, a price (even if it is a
gift, a minimum sales price such as $10
is required), the old owners’ signatures
(witnessed and/or notarized in accor-
dance with the state law), sometimes
the new owners’ signatures as well, and
a formal legal description of the real es-
tate being transferred.
Often, deeds are recorded in the of-
fi cial records of the county where the
real estate is located.
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