Jumping on my father’s white freckled stomach as he floated around Rice Lake on an inner tube in the hot July sun is just one of my earliest cottaging memories.

Grabbing our sun-burnt bodies he’d launch my siblings and me up high into the air over his shoulders. Screaming with terror and delight we’d crash into the warm weedy waters, popping up moments later, and beg my father to throw us again and again.

Growing up, my family cottage was a source of joy and excitement, a place I couldn’t wait to get to and a place I never wanted to leave. It would take 20 years before I was finally able to afford my own cottage with the hope that one day my children too would experience the same joy and delight I had growing up. But for many of us fostering the dream of someday passing our summer retreats onto our children, it may be just that - a dream.

When it comes to handing down the family property, most people wait until it’s too late. There are steps cottagers should be taking now to prepare for the eventual disposition of the property, particularly if they are planning on leaving it to their children.

I had the opportunity at last year’s spring Cottage Life show to hear Peter Lillico, of Lillico Bazuk Kent Galloway, Peterborough Ontario, present on this very topic, Cottage Conundrum: Keeping it in the Family.

Lillico states the Cottage Conundrum is that the tax system, financial realities and family dynamics are all critical obstacles to achieving the generous goal of ensuring the cottage stays in the family.

This week we will look at these obstacles in more detail and examine financial solutions like taking out insurance policies, declaring the cottage a primary residence or having the children assume ownership at an earlier age as some of the ways of managing the financial obstacles.

If you are going through this exercise right now, I invite you to share your experience with us.

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.