CONFIRMED:UPDATE: DVC Exploring New Trust Based Ownership

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Disney Vacation Club’s New Trust Product CONFIRMED in Fort Wilderness Cabins Filings

Confirmation of Trust-Based Ownership

According to a filing dated December 15th, 2023, Disney Vacation Development is set to introduce a trust-based DVC ownership product beginning with the Fort Wilderness Cabins. This new approach marks a shift from the current deeded ownership interest, suggesting a strategic pivot towards a more flexible and scalable model for future developments.

Palmetto Trust Association in Focus

The documents released include Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation related to the Palmetto Trust Association Inc. This recent formation is believed to be a precursor to the new trust-based ownership structure. For those who aren’t familiar with this new venture, we previously discussed it here.

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The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort as the Initial Focus

At first glance, the plan seems to be to declare the entirety of The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort to the trust. This move could indicate that only new future DVC properties will include a trust-based ownership interest, excluding existing resorts such as Riviera, Aulani, Disneyland Hotel, and others. However, DVC could potentially amend the plan documents for these resorts and move undeclared inventory to the trust at a later time.

Multiple Trust Use Plans

The new releases by DVC confirm that there can be more than one Trust Use Plan within the trust, each governed by its own rules and regulations. This could mean that properties within the trust are also part of a vacation ownership scheme, where people own or have the right to use a variety of properties for vacations, which are all part of the larger “trust”.


The Implications of the New Trust Structure

Until other resorts are added to the trust, the true intent of this plan may not be fully understood. As long as only The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort are managed and sold by the trust, most owners will not notice anything out of the ordinary.

The most notable difference is that nstead of buying an interest in a specific resort, DVC purchases will now take the form of purchasing an ownership interest in a timeshare resort use plan. Deeds issued will declare that buyers have a “Right to Use” the accommodations declared into the trust and part of the plan. Disney refers to interest in “The Cabins Resort Use Plan” multiple times in the recent filings.

helenabear

Whatever. I don’t expect much of an impact overall and if/when things change we’ll be that much closer to the first resorts expiring, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens regardless.

Back in the days when we could itemize our taxes we use to claim the DVC property taxes. Does the trust eliminate the property taxes because the purchaser is no longer being deeded?

My speculative guess is that all new projects will be put in this trust. I thought Poly2 was already declared to be part of Poly1, so I don't think they can add that into the trust without a huge challenge. Now, maybe Poly2 isn't officially part of Poly1 yet. In that case, they could change gears and declare it a separate DVC entity and put it in the trust. However, there might not be a reason to do it. Poly2 will sell just fine on its own.

If we think about it, DVC is running out of "premium" areas to build DVC resorts. The Rivera and FW cabins aren't walkable to any of the parks. The new resale restrictions, cost per point, and points per room made things even less palatable for these locations. Putting new, less desirable properties under one umbrella where you'd have multiple choices kind of makes sense.

They could amend the POS to include Poly2 into the Trust. There has been no concrete statement from Disney that this is part of the same Poly association. Not saying what has been previously said is not true, BUT there has been no official announcement. Until then, all possibilities exist as to what is going into this new Trust. It does make sense to declare the whole new tower Poly/2 upon declaration as this would fulfill all units going into the Trust.

Briefly, yes. There are some who are refuting what Hope quoted earlier. 

The alternative idea seems to be there is a over-reaching Trust, and within it there would be sub-trusts, one for each resort.

Each sub-trust could include a whole resort or undeclared complete units at an existing resort. This would allow a distinction between buying direct points or buying resale. If you bought direct you would have home priority at all sub-trusts, whereas resale buyers only have it at the specific sub-trust you purchased. And only direct buyers would be able to switch into legacy resorts. 

This also fits with the language used over resale restrictions at the Cabins, and also where they say that any future developments at FW may be part of the Cabin “association” or a new one. 

The sub-trust idea is how they could take some of the undeclared units at existing resorts and have them included in the Trust set up. So there would be a Riviera sub-trust,an Aulani sub-trust etc. By only using undeclared complete units at these resorts they can amend the POS without affecting existing owners at those resorts.