SCARY CAMPFIRE STORIES WITH OLG: JANET’S BANE A/K/A THE FAMILY COTTAGE

The following are purely fictional events as a continuation in our series of stories built around the Fettucine family. Today’s chapter is the counterpoint to Serj’s point of view posted last month and follows Janet Fettucine as she learns that the hardest inheritance is the one no one planned for…

As a child, my parents bought a cottage on a beautiful lake. My younger brother, Serj, absolutely loved it. Every summer he was outside fishing, swimming, gathering firewood, or trying to convince me that sleeping next to spiders in a cabin without air conditioning was “part of the experience.” I never understood the appeal.

As I got older, I moved away, got married, and began living my own life. Serj stayed nearby and continued spending weekends at the cottage with my parents. The cottage became one of the places I occasionally visited because my parents loved it, not because I did.

After my parents passed away, I learned that they had never put together an estate plan to address what should happen with the cottage upon their death. Under Wisconsin law, Serj and I each inherited a one-half interest.

Then life happened.

My marriage ended, and I found myself moving back to Wisconsin with nowhere else to go. Serj wasn’t exactly thrilled about me moving into the cottage, especially after all the years he had spent maintaining the property. But from my perspective, I wasn’t trying to take over the cottage. I was simply trying to get back on my feet. Besides, I had paid my share of the property taxes for the cottage. Doesn’t that count for something? I have just as much of a right to be there as he has. I am just catching up on all the time I hadn’t used it, but could have.  It’s not like I want to be there. Instead of filing a lawsuit, why didn’t he offer to buy my interest? I need the money…

The longer we argued, the more I realized something. My parents probably knew (or should have known) that Serj loved that cottage more than I ever did. They knew I had moved away.

But they never sat us down to ask what we wanted. They never made an estate plan to direct what should happen with the family cottage when they were no longer around. If they had simply discussed with us what we wanted, they would have learned that I would have been perfectly happy receiving something else, while Serj would have gladly taken the cottage.

Looking back, I don’t think my parents expected us to end up fighting over the cottage. They certainly could not have envisioned their son taking legal action to force its sale.

The problem wasn’t that they made the wrong decision.

The problem was that they never made a decision.

What is the moral of Janet’s story?

If you don’t make an estate plan, Wisconsin already has one for you. Unfortunately, it doesn’t know your children, your family dynamics, or what any of you would have wanted. Communicating with your family and working with an estate planning professional can help ensure that your wishes—not state law—determine who receives what. Comparing Serj and Janet’s stories, is either one in the wrong? Is it a mere breakdown in civil communication between siblings? Are they both just unfortunate victims of no planning?