Andrew Tricomi Financial Planner

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The family cottage is one of the most emotionally loaded assets in estate planning.

It’s where three generations learned to canoe. Where the kids caught their first fish. Where summer memories were made.

It’s also where a lot of families lose hundreds of thousands of dollars to taxes they didn’t plan for.

Here’s what happens: when the cottage owner dies, the CRA treats it as if the property was sold at fair market value. A cottage purchased for $80,000 in the 1980s might now be worth $800,000 or more. That $720,000 capital gain can trigger a tax bill exceeding $200,000 on the final return.

If the estate doesn’t have the liquidity to pay it, the cottage often has to be sold. I’ve seen it happen to families who assumed their kids would just “inherit the cottage.” Technically they did. But then it had to be liquidated to cover the tax.

The good news: there are strategies to reduce, defer, or plan for that tax bill.
Principal residence exemption. Yes, a cottage can qualify. But only one property per family can be designated each year, so the allocation matters.

Transferring now vs. later. Each has trade-offs. Transferring during your lifetime triggers an immediate deemed disposition. Waiting means the tax bill falls to your estate.

Family trusts. They offer control and flexibility, but come with the 21-year rule: a deemed disposition every 21 years whether you sell or not.
Joint ownership. Simpler on paper, but it exposes the cottage to your children’s creditors and can complicate things quickly.

Life insurance. Often the cleanest solution. A tax-free death benefit arrives exactly when the estate needs liquidity.

The families who keep the cottage in the family are the ones who plan for it years in advance. The ones who lose it are usually the ones who assumed everything would “work itself out.” If you have a cottage and haven’t had this conversation with your family yet, it’s worth starting now. Check out the blog post on my website - If you are thinking about how to keep your cottage in the family, please reach out- i’d be happy to have that conversation.

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