Read the Print Version

Because Selling Nana’s Cottage Seemed Like A Good Idea, At The Time… Idiots!
A Little Bit Of Smarts, A Future Of Golden Memories

Birds Do It, Bees Do It, Even Educated Fleas Do It
Let’s Do It! Let’s Go To The Lake!

Sincere Apologies to Cole Porter

In uncivilized countries, such as those in Europe and Asia, new workers start out with 6 weeks of mandatory vacation (which they confusingly call “holiday”). Not including public holidays (which they call “festivals” or something). What do these folks do with such excessive periods of sloth and inactivity? Who knows? Who cares?

In America, on the other hand, we have weekends. And summer! And a week or two of “vacation”. And being Americans, we do not wish to waste this time. If Americans were as sedentary and unambitious as our global neighbors, we could spend this time in sidewalk cafés, art museums and reading. Improving our minds. Getting culture. Ghastly stuff. “Deliver us O Lord, we pray…”

Unlike our fellow travelers on Spaceship Earth, all true Americans find home improvement projects irresistible. Paint the walls. Build a deck. Plant a garden. Cut the grass. Replace, polish, fix or improve whatever has not been recently replaced, polished, fixed or improved. Pitiful, benighted foreigners have foreign places with palaces, temples, pagodas, and castles. Blessed, muscular Americans have Lowe’s, Harbor Freight, and Home Depot. Seems like an easy choice.

Sooner or later, though, all true Americans feel the restless urge to get out of Dodge, at least on the weekends. In the summertime. Or hunting season. We ran out of things to improve around the house. The deer ate all the tomato plants. It’s too hot. We were bored. So we got another house. In God’s country!

In the American Tradition, the second home could be a house. Or single wide. Perhaps a shack with no indoor plumbing or insulation. On a 40 foot lot. At the lake, at the shore, in the woods, somewhere other than here. From Idlewild in Lake County to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, American middle class workers by the thousands filled the developments which sprang up around every lake, pond, and ditch within driving distance. And because the lake wasn’t big enough, we dug canals, dammed creeks, and otherwise expanded our Water Wonderland. Magnificent! And not only lakes, but the woods filled with weekend escapes too! Glorious!

At grandmother’s cottage many of us learned to swim and fish. Caught tadpoles and watched them grow to frogs. Searched for salamanders under logs and rocks. Got mosquito bites and poison ivy. Fell in the mud Played in the sand. Went ice-fishing in the winter.

Campfires on the shore. Remember?

Whatever happened to that place? How much would it cost to buy something similar today? Why did we get rid of it? Too bad our kids and grandkids won’t have the experiences we did. Or the memories. At least they have iPads.

The Family Cottage LifeCycle

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born, And a time to die; 6 A time to gain, And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2,6

Is it a ridiculous idea that there is a lifecycle to family cottages and recreation properties? There is a routine evolution in the relationship between family and property. Is it a bad idea to recognize the lifecycle and work with it? Are you against preserving unique opportunities for your family?

The Family Cottage Lifecycle:
1. Young Child: Best. Place. Ever!
2. Teenager: So stupid. Boring. Smells funny.
3. Young Adult: My life is busy. I have no time for that place. If I inherit a share, I’m selling it… I need money for tuition/new car/down payment/taxes…
4. Parent of Young Child: Why did we ever sell the cottage? We can’t even afford to rent at the lake today.
5. Older and Wiser: If I ever get the opportunity, I won’t make that mistake again.

We all pass through seasons in our lives. As we gain experience, some important-seeming situations will fade to nothing. Other events will become more meaningful as time goes by. Wisdom and perspective cannot be taught, only learned. Growing up is the tuition that must be paid for insight.

Are long-term decisions best left to the youngest, least- experienced folks? Is it wrong for those with proven perception and prudence to plan for the long-term? Do you sacrifice long term gain for short term pleasure?

Estate Planning Done Wrong
Two Estate Planning Blunders That Guarantee Failure

Traditional estate planning, if it has any purpose at all, dumps your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Don’t much care what happens to you while you are alive.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.

Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long- term care?

LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for.

LifePlanning™ means you do not have to sell the cottage and “spend down” the proceeds. Now what to do with the recreational property?

Traditional estate planning offers two options:
1. Circular Firing Squad or Last Man Standing
2. The Corporate Model or Last One Out is a Rotten Egg

Circular Firing Squad is easy, cheap and disastrous. The Corporate Model is not easy, not cheap, and not as disastrous.

Circular Firing Squad

Putting all the kids “on the deed” is the circular firing squad. It is the easiest, cheapest, most popular, and worst possible way to leave recreation property to kids.

“Last Man Standing” is the most common Circular Firing Squad method. This involves naming all of the children or other beneficiaries as Joint Tenants with full Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS) on the deed. As joint tenants with rights of survivorship, the last living person owns the entire property. Did you plan to disinherit most of the family?

JTWROS deeds also deny Medicaid benefits to your kids and their spouses. Medicaid treats their share as if it was cash in the bank. But it is NOT cash in the bank, it is a fractional interest that is totally locked up in the property. And now your kids are disqualified from Medicaid. Whoops!

But that is not the worst. JTWROS deeds have no rules. Other than each person can fully use the property without the others’ permission.

Congratulations! Your child is the new president of the Pagan Assassins Mud Wrestling Team – Australian Rules. Your child invites the entire 32 member, mixed gender team to the cottage. On the 4th of July. Your child has never paid their share of the taxes, utilities or maintenance. When the Pagan Assassins leave, the place is a bloody shambles. And there is nothing the other kids can do about it. In fact, since you signed a standard, immediately effective, JTWROS deed, there is nothing YOU can do about it. Not even dead yet and already you have lost control of your property. Did you know that when you signed on for this quick and easy solution?

Ladybird to the Rescue? You may have used a ladybird or transfer on death deed to create this living hell. Good News! At least the suffering will not begin until after you have passed on to your reward. Then the JTWROS takes effect and we are off to the races.

You may also create a Circular Firing Squad using a “Tenants in Common” deed. The TIC deed gives individual shares to each child while you retain a share. Unlike JTWROS, each child owns a piece that they can give to the grandkids. Or sell to the Pagan Assassins. Just as with JTWROS, there are no rules.

Did I mention that each Circular Firing Squad method leaves the other kids open to liability claims from the unsanctioned “activities”? And it does no good for them to abandon the property, now they can be prosecuted for housing code violations. And please! Do not get me started on that methamphetamine lab in the basement. Or the fentanyl stockpile in the shed. Oh my!

If you are going to create a Circular Firing Squad, use the TIC method. If they all hate each other enough, they can go to probate court, sue one another, and force a sale. Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad! Great planning!

The Corporate Model: Last One Out Is A Rotten Egg

Do you really want to leave stuff to the kids without any rules? Is blunt force trauma the best way to make sure your grandkids will learn how to swim at the lake? Do you want to empower one of your kids to hold the others hostage?

There are many permutations of the Corporate Model. Most use a limited liability company to hold the real estate and give shares to the kids.

And there are rules. And governing provisions. And limited liability for the kids. Still have that pesky Medicaid problem with disqualification, but I guess you cannot have everything.

A general rule in a corporate structure is that minority members can sell their shares and get out. The usual Cottage LLC requires the other members to buy out the one who wants to sell. And if they do not… say hello to the Pagan Assassins.

Doesn’t seem like such a big deal. One kid wants to move to the Himalayas and commune with the mountain spirits. That kid is not planning to come back. Or perhaps another kid wants his money to buy a car. The cottage does not seem so important right now. The problem is not one of law. The buyout provisions are clear and enforceable.

The problem is that as soon as one kid wants out, so do the rest. The other kids don’t want to pay, frequently they are not able to pay. It was a blessing to have had the cottage so long, but now it must go. Over and over again, if one kid wants out, they all do. Last one out is a rotten egg!

The Corporate Model fails because it depends on the continued unanimous support of all the family members. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

What if there were no links? What if no individual could torpedo the entire family’s legacy?

The National Park Model: Recipe For Success

There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and the wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbol of the great human principle.

—Franklin D. Roosevelt

You will never go to Yosemite National Park. You have Yosemite-phobia. And a doctor’s note to prove it. Since you will never go to Yosemite, you write to the National Park Service. You demand your share of the value of Yosemite. Cash me out! Do you expect a response?

Roosevelt’s “fundamental idea” is that the national parks belong to everyone, down through the generations. The big idea is simple: Preserve it now or lose it forever.

Isn’t that the idea behind leaving the family cottage to the family? Could you afford, right now, to purchase your cottage, cabin, hunting land? Of course not! Lake Michigan properties that sold in the $20-30,000 range in the 60’s and 70’s are in the millions now. If you can find one. And the same is true of smaller lakes. The wild price inflation is less for hunting land, but still forbidding.

At the turn of the last century, a few visionaries like Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir saw that without national preservation efforts, irreplaceable natural treasures would be lost. In other countries, the rich and the royal preserved land for their own benefit. In America, we did it for all of us. And our descendants.

The National Park Model is a new way of looking at your cottage or recreational property. You are making a promise to your future family that short-term considerations will not outweigh long term goals.

The basic principles are straightforward and are familiar to anyone who has ever traveled or camped in a national, state or local park:
1. Rules for Use. Family members are stewards of a gift. Rules for use and care will be clear and must be observed. There will be an evenhanded system for allocating the available space among various family members.
2. Financial Responsibility. Budgets will be prepared, including all taxes, utilities, insurance and sinking funds for all capital improvements, including the roof, plumbing, fixtures and utilities. Present and future expenses will be identified and incorporated.
3. Nobody Rides for Free. You can’t get in a Park without a sticker to pay for the road. You can’t stay overnight without paying for your campsite.

You can’t stay at the Cottage without paying the necessary charge to cover your share of the budget. In advance.

There are other provisions that allow for limited liability and definition of membership. These can all be tailored to the specific needs of individual families.

On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant created Yellowstone as the first national park in the United States and the world. For over 150 years, Yellowstone has been preserved and available to all Americans.

Is it ridiculous to think that the same concepts that worked for Yellowstone for the last 150 years could preserve your family’s heritage too? Are you against providing that sort of experience to your children, grandchildren, and generations yet unborn?

If not you, who? If not now, when?
Is Now A Bad Time For Real Solutions?

Does anyone on this earth have all the answers? Does that mean we should give up seeking the best answers we can find? Perhaps you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. Why not find out? Is now a bad time to find out how to obtain security for yourself? And your family?

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?

Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812

The post Why Only Rich Kids At The Lake? appeared first on Carrier Law.

Read the print version

Whatever Happened To The Family Cottage/Cabin/Hunting Land?
A Little Bit Of Smarts, A Future Of Golden Memories

Birds Do It, Bees Do It, Even Educated Fleas Do It
Let’s Do It! Let’s Go To The Lake!

—Sincere Apologies to Cole Porter

In uncivilized countries, such as those in Europe and Asia, new workers start out with 6 weeks of mandatory vacation (which they confusingly call “holiday”). Not including public holidays (which they call “festivals” or something). What do these folks do with such excessive periods of sloth and inactivity? Who knows? Who cares?

In America, on the other hand, we have weekends. And summer! And a week or two of “vacation”. And being Americans, we do not wish to waste this time. If Americans were as sedentary and unambitious as our global neighbors, we could spend this time in sidewalk cafés, art museums and reading. Improving our minds. Getting culture. Ghastly stuff. “Deliver us O Lord, we pray…”

Unlike our fellow travelers on Spaceship Earth, all true Americans find home improvement projects irresistible. Paint the walls. Build a deck. Plant a garden. Cut the grass. Replace, polish, fix or improve whatever has not been recently replaced, polished, fixed or improved. Pitiful, benighted foreigners have foreign places with palaces, temples, pagodas, and castles. Blessed, muscular Americans have Lowe’s, Harbor Freight, and Home Depot. Seems like an easy choice.

Sooner or later, though, all true Americans feel the restless urge to get out of Dodge, at least on the weekends. In the summertime. Or hunting season. We ran out of things to improve around the house. The deer ate all the tomato plants. It’s too hot. We were bored. So we got another house. In God’s country!

In the American Tradition, the second home could be a house. Or single wide. Perhaps a shack with no indoor plumbing or insulation. On a 40 foot lot. At the lake, at the shore, in the woods, somewhere other than here. From Idlewild in Lake County to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, American middle class workers by the thousands filled the developments which sprang up around every lake, pond, and ditch within driving distance. And because the lake wasn’t big enough, we dug canals, dammed creeks, and otherwise expanded our Water Wonderland. Magnificent! And not only lakes, but the woods filled with weekend escapes too! Glorious!

At grandmother’s cottage many of us learned to swim and fish. Caught tadpoles and watched them grow to frogs. Searched for salamanders under logs and rocks. Got mosquito bites and poison ivy. Fell in the mud. Played in the sand. Went ice-fishing in the winter. Campfires on the shore. Remember?

Whatever happened to that place? How much would it cost to buy something similar today? Why did we get rid of it? Too bad our kids and grandkids won’t have the experiences we did. Or the memories. At least they have iPads.

The Family Cottage LifeCycle

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born, And a time to die; 6 A time to gain, And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;

—Ecclesiastes 3:1-2,6

Is it a ridiculous idea that there is a lifecycle to family cottages and recreation properties? There is a routine evolution in the relationship between family and property. Is it a bad idea to recognize the lifecycle and work with it? Are you against preserving unique opportunities for your family?

The Family Cottage Lifecycle:
1. Young Child: Best. Place. Ever!
2. Teenager: So stupid. Boring. Smells funny.
3. Young Adult: My life is busy. I have no time for that place. If I inherit a share, I’m selling it… I need money for tuition/new car/down payment/taxes…
4. Parent of Young Child: Why did we ever sell the cottage? We can’t even afford to rent at the lake today.
5. Older and Wiser: If I ever get the opportunity, I won’t make that mistake again.

We all pass through seasons in our lives. As we gain experience, some important-seeming situations will fade to nothing. Other events will become more meaningful as time goes by. Wisdom and perspective cannot be taught, only learned. Growing up is the tuition that must be paid for insight.

Are long-term decisions best left to the youngest, least- experienced folks? Is it wrong for those with proven perception and prudence to plan for the long-term? Do you sacrifice long term gain for short term pleasure?

Estate Planning Done Wrong
Two Estate Planning Blunders That Guarantee Failure

Traditional estate planning, if it has any purpose at all, dumps your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Don’t much care what happens to you while you are alive.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.

Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long- term care?

LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for.

LifePlanning™ means you do not have to sell the cottage and “spend down” the proceeds. Now what to do with the recreational property?

Traditional estate planning offers two options:
1. Circular Firing Squad or Last Man Standing
2. The Corporate Model or Last One Out is a Rotten Egg

Circular Firing Squad is easy, cheap and disastrous.

The Corporate Model is not easy, not cheap, and not as disastrous.

Circular Firing Squad

Putting all the kids “on the deed” is the circular firing squad. It is the easiest, cheapest, most popular, and worst possible way to leave recreation property to kids.

“Last Man Standing” is the most common Circular Firing Squad method. This involves naming all of the children or other beneficiaries as Joint Tenants with full Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS) on the deed. As joint tenants with rights of survivorship, the last living person owns the entire property. Did you plan to disinherit most of the family?

JTWROS deeds also deny Medicaid benefits to your kids and their spouses. Medicaid treats their share as if it was cash in the bank. But it is NOT cash in the bank, it is a fractional interest that is totally locked up in the property. And now your kids are disqualified from Medicaid. Whoops!

But that is not the worst. JTWROS deeds have no rules. Other than each person can fully use the property without the others’ permission. Congratulations! Your child is the new president of the Pagan Assassins Mud Wrestling Team – Australian Rules. Your child invites the entire 32 member, mixed gender team to the cottage. On the 4th of July. Your child has never paid their share of the taxes, utilities or maintenance. When the Pagan Assassins leave, the place is a bloody shambles. And there is nothing the other kids can do about it. In fact, since you signed a standard, immediately effective, JTWROS deed, there is nothing YOU can do about it. Not even dead yet and already you have lost control of your property. Did you know that when you signed on for this quick and easy solution?

Ladybird to the Rescue? You may have used a ladybird or transfer on death deed to create this living hell. Good News! At least the suffering will not begin until after you have passed on to your reward. Then the JTWROS takes effect and we are off to the races.

You may also create a Circular Firing Squad using a “Tenants in Common” deed. The TIC deed gives individual shares to each child while you retain a share. Unlike JTWROS, each child owns a piece that they can give to the grandkids. Or sell to the Pagan Assassins. Just as with JTWROS, there are no rules.

Did I mention that each Circular Firing Squad method leaves the other kids open to liability claims from the unsanctioned “activities”? And it does no good for them to abandon the property, now they can be prosecuted for housing code violations. And please! Do not get me started on that methamphetamine lab in the basement. Or the fentanyl stockpile in the shed. Oh my!

If you are going to create a Circular Firing Squad, use the TIC method. If they all hate each other enough, they can go to probate court, sue one another, and force a sale. Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad! Great planning!

The Corporate Model: Last One Out Is A Rotten Egg

Do you really want to leave stuff to the kids without any rules? Is blunt force trauma the best way to make sure your grandkids will learn how to swim at the lake? Do you want to empower one of your kids to hold the others hostage?

There are many permutations of the Corporate Model. Most use a limited liability company to hold the real estate and give shares to the kids. And there are rules. And governing provisions. And limited liability for the kids. Still have that pesky Medicaid problem with disqualification, but I guess you cannot have everything.

A general rule in a corporate structure is that minority members can sell their shares and get out. The usual Cottage LLC requires the other members to buy out the one who wants to sell. And if they do not… say hello to the Pagan Assassins.

Doesn’t seem like such a big deal. One kid wants to move to the Himalayas and commune with the mountain spirits. That kid is not planning to come back. Or perhaps another kid wants his money to buy a car. The cottage does not seem so important right now. The problem is not one of law. The buyout provisions are clear and enforceable.

The problem is that as soon as one kid wants out, so do the rest. The other kids don’t want to pay, frequently they are not able to pay. It was a blessing to have had the cottage so long, but now it must go. Over and over again, if one kid wants out, they all do. Last one out is a rotten egg!

The Corporate Model fails because it depends on the continued unanimous support of all the family members. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

What if there were no links? What if no individual could torpedo the entire family’s legacy?

The National Park Model: Recipe For Success

There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and the wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbol of the great human principle.

—Franklin D. Roosevelt

You will never go to Yosemite National Park. You have Yosemite-phobia. And a doctor’s note to prove it. Since you will never go to Yosemite, you write to the National Park Service. You demand your share of the value of Yosemite. Cash me out! Do you expect a response?

Roosevelt’s “fundamental idea” is that the national parks belong to everyone, down through the generations. The big idea is simple: Preserve it now or lose it forever.

Isn’t that the idea behind leaving the family cottage to the family? Could you afford, right now, to purchase your cottage, cabin, hunting land? Of course not! Lake Michigan properties that sold in the $20-30,000 range in the 60’s and 70’s are in the millions now. If you can find one. And the same is true of smaller lakes. The wild price inflation is less for hunting land, but still forbidding.

At the turn of the last century, a few visionaries like Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir saw that without national preservation efforts, irreplaceable natural treasures would be lost. In other countries, the rich and the royal preserved land for their own benefit. In America, we did it for all of us. And our descendants.

The National Park Model is a new way of looking at your cottage or recreational property. You are making a promise to your future family that short-term considerations will not outweigh long term goals.

The basic principles are straightforward and are familiar to anyone who has ever traveled or camped in a national, state or local park:

1. Rules for Use. Family members are stewards of a gift. Rules for use and care will be clear and must be observed. There will be an evenhanded system for allocating the available space among various family members.
2. Financial Responsibility. Budgets will be prepared, including all taxes, utilities, insurance and sinking funds for all capital improvements, including the roof, plumbing, fixtures and utilities. Present and future expenses will be identified and incorporated.
3. Nobody Rides for Free. You can’t get in a Park without a sticker to pay for the road. You can’t stay overnight without paying for your campsite. You can’t stay at the Cottage without paying the necessary charge to cover your share of the budget. In advance.

There are other provisions that allow for limited liability and definition of membership. These can all be tailored to the specific needs of individual families.

On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant created Yellowstone as the first national park in the United States and the world. For over 150 years, Yellowstone has been preserved and available to all Americans.

Is it ridiculous to think that the same concepts that worked for Yellowstone for the last 150 years could preserve your family’s heritage too? Are you against providing that sort of experience to your children, grandchildren, and generations yet unborn?

If not you, who? If not now, when?
Is Now A Bad Time For Real Solutions?

Does anyone on this earth have all the answers? Does that mean we should give up seeking the best answers we can find? Perhaps you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. Why not find out? Is now a bad time to find out how to obtain security for yourself? And your family?

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™ You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?

Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812

The post Why Only Rich Kids At The Lake? appeared first on Carrier Law.

Summertime Stories

Remember Grandma’s Cottage? You learned to swim there. Caught your first fish (what do I do NOW?!). Stealing bacon for bait when you ran out of worms. The leaky rowboat. Crammed with your cousins in sleeping bags on the “living room” floor. Trading stories in the dark. Grownups yelling “Shut up and go to sleep!” from the patio. Waiting for the charcoal to get just right. Hotdogs on the grill. Toasting marshmallows. Fireflies. That particular musty damp smell. Whatever happened to that place?

Well, they put all us kids on the deed, but it was sold when… Grandpa went into the nursing home… Uncle Chuck went bankrupt… Aunt Susan’s kids kept trashing the place… Aunt Beth got divorced… Cousin Ed needed college money… We just didn’t go anymore… Many reasons, no more memories, no more stories.

But the Cottage can be saved. You can do it. Your kids and grandkids can live those stories, create those memories. Share experiences. Bond as a family. Build the stories they’ll tell the next generation. Crammed with their cousins, in sleeping bags, in the same “living room.”

Do Not Trade The Cottage For The Nursing Home

Most folks simply do not plan for long-term care. You have heard bits and pieces. Old lake friends forced sale to pay the bills. Horror stories. Bad luck. Tough. Sorry it happened to them. Could not happen to your family.

Clarity is the first step. Estate planning is not about the next generation. It’s about you. Right now. Preserving what you own. Protecting what you value. Traditional estate planning fails families. Most folks eventually need long-term care. Most folks eventually sell the Cottage to pay for it. Simple as that.

You can avoid nursing home poverty. Why isn’t it your top priority? How? LifePlanning™. This system acknowledges that middle class prosperity and independence are destroyed by long-term care costs. LifePlanning™ first protects the Cottage and other family assets. Once life savings are protected, the family can intelligently and purposefully plan for life choices respected.

Now the Cottage is protected and purposefully planned. Life choices respected. No threat from health care, lawsuits, or long-term care expenses. Now we are able to look to the future. Some fundamentals are key.

Estate planning is not about the next generation. It’s about you.

Cottage Life Cycle

Cottages have a life cycle that is remarkably consistent. Ignoring the Cottage Life Cycle practically insures failure. Most planning ignores the Cottage Life Cycle.

Little Kid: Grandma’s Cottage is a magical place: sunny days, puffy clouds, fish a-biting, campfires, friends, swimming. Let’s go! Glorious!

Teenage Years: Grandma’s Cottage is a stinky dump. Why do I have to go? Not cool. Get me outta here!

Young Adult: Bills, bills, bills. Cottage? Sorry: no time, no interest. Cash me in my share of Grandma’s Cottage. So, what if you have to sell it? I ain’t got time for that now.

Married with Children: Gee, whatever happened to Grandma’s Cottage? Too bad our kids won’t have that experience. We can’t afford a Cottage at today’s prices. Even the rentals are outrageous. Too bad.

Grandma’s Cottage begins and ends as the most desirable place in the world. But in the meantime, urgency overrules importance, and the Cottage is sacrificed. Bad luck. And it doesn’t have to be that way. You can have both nostalgic memories and today’s adventure.

Two Traditional Techniques, Two Ways To Fail

Families have failed for generations to protect the family Cottage. I blame the lawyers who advise poorly. You think they would have learned by now. You would be wrong. For generations, the most popular techniques are “last man standing” and the “corporate model.” Both facilitate failure.

Last Man Standing

By far the easiest, cheapest, most popular, and least likely to succeed: “Putting the kids on the deed.” Usually as joint tenants with rights of survivorship. Sometimes (usually by mistake) as tenants in common. Disaster! Joint tenancy equals no rules. Everyone can do anything. No one must pay. And you cannot get out of it. Except by death. Example: Grandma and Grandpa put Aunt Sue and Uncle Chuck “on the deed.” They pass on. Aunt Sue pays all the taxes, utilities, upkeep. Uncle Chuck brings his 30 closest outlaw biker chums for the weekend. Every weekend. Aunt Sue cannot prevent it. Cannot stop him. Cannot make him pay his “fair share.” And if Uncle Chuck lives longer than Aunt Sue, he owns it all. It happens. Failure. But it does avoid probate… whoopee!

Sometimes, when one kid has great financial need (real or imagined), the others will agree to sell the Cottage. Failure again.

Corporate Calamity

So how about some rules? Great idea! And that is the basis for the “corporate model.” Create a limited liability company (“LLC”). Now there are rules. But a new problem. The corporate model gives each beneficiary the right to leave. And to be paid off. Compensated for their share of the Cottage. That is when the corporate model fails. Sooner or later, someone wants out. And they have a right to money. Which the family does not have. Forced sale of the Cottage. Failure.

Remember the Cottage Life Cycle. At some point, each beneficiary will “need” the money more than the Cottage. My experience is that it only takes one. One kid to say “Cash me in.” And then the Cottage is sold. Memories last forever, but that’s the end of the Cottage experience.

A New Hope: The National Park Model

Weaknesses of the Two Traditional Techniques are painfully obvious. And have caused great pain in thousands of families. New hope comes in the National Park Model. It is simple.

Grandma and Grampa want future generations to have magical, irreplaceable experiences. Grandma and Grampa know Cottage Life Cycle. They have seen it in operation. They want to guarantee their legacy.

Here’s the idea: National Parks were established to preserve the irreplaceable. Fill in the Grand Canyon? There isn’t another one. Pave over Yellowstone? Gone for all time. But. Set these treasures aside. Prohibit selfish or short-sighted decisions. Focus on the far future. Now things look different.

You can’t “cash in” your share of Yellowstone or Yosemite, just because you don’t plan to go. Why should you be able to “cash in” the Cottage? And wreck it forever?

You can’t just throw down a tent and sleeping bag in a national park. You have to pay the expenses you create. Why should anyone freeload on the Cottage? Why not establish a budget and other mechanisms that will ensure long term viability?

That’s how dozens of families are now protecting the Cottage today. Rules for harmony. Preserving the past for the future. Pay as you go, while building reserves. No desperation. No leaky roofs. No unpaid taxes.

The National Park Cottage Trust works well in many contexts. The hunting property. The family farm. The townhouse. Clarity eliminates family strife. Reliable rules cement family relationships. In a world of conflict and chaos, wouldn’t it be nice to establish a safe haven? Traditions that will endure. Memories down through the ages. Without regret.

In a world of conflict and chaos, wouldn’t it be nice to establish a safe haven?

Taking Care Of Yourself Is Taking Care Of Your Family

Too many families have the story of the Cottage, the Farm, the Hunting Cabin that “got away.” Your family does not have to suffer a similar fate. You can be the author. Rewrite the future story of your life and your family’s. The National Park Model approach preserves resources, strengthens relationships, achieves your highest goals. And when your great-great-great grandchildren laugh with delight, learning to swim, fish and camp on the Cottage you provided for them… Well, I expect you’ll hear it, all the way over on the other side of the Great Divide.

Call (800) 317-2812

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