Post reply

Re: Manhattan Club Lawsuit (by Steven W):

To all those inquiring about your heirs being saddled with this albatross: I have been a practicing estates lawyer in NY for nearly 50 years. The information given to you by Laura (I believe her name was) was basically correct: your beneficiary cannot be "forced" to inherit (and therefore have to pay for maintenance etc.) for the timeshare. The legal route is to execute a disclaimer within 9 months after death, and make sure that you do NOT accept the timeshare by using it or otherwise indicating acceptance (e.g., trying to sell it as if you own it). However, each state has its own laws as to how one disclaims. Generally, one of the prior posts was correct; you can't "pick and chose", that is, disclaim the timeshare but accept everything else. The proper way to do it is, generally, for you to bequeath the time share in a separate provision from the rest of the assets disposed of in your Will (or trust), then provide that if the particular legatee to whom you've bequeathed the timeshare disclaims it, THEN DIRECT THAT IT IS BEQUEATHED BACK TO THE MANHATTAN CLUB. That will give your beneficiary the option of seeing how things lie in the 9 months after your death, and either accept it if things have been worked out; or disclaim it and sock that sucker back to the Club. Note though: the Club can then also disclaim it, so there are some further fine points legal steps that must be implemented in your Will or trust to deal with that possibility. But most definitely your heirs are NOT bound to accept the timeshare and make the payments if a proper disclaimer strategy is included in your estate planning documentys