Keep Your House Out of Probate With a Life Estate Deed

When young people get married, they do it with big dreams about their careers that are just starting and about the children that will be born to them in the future. Even the most pragmatic people often face disappointments later in life about how achieving those dreams is harder than it looks. By contrast, getting married later in life is simpler; there is no older generation of in-laws to impress, and both spouses know that they are not going to get rich. Late in life marriage is about making the most of what you already have by sharing it with your spouse. The most practical people who marry late in life build their estate plans to reflect the reality that you and your spouse are a family but that each of you already has a family that has been in your life since before you got together. Family dynamics with families that blend late in life are usually less complicated than those of blended families with minor children, but the inheritance of the family home can be a sticking point. A life estate deed is one possible solution to this problem. To find out more about preventing disputes over the inheritance of your house, contact a Washington, D.C. estate planning lawyer.

A Life Estate Deed Can Help You Save Money and Keep the Peace

Even if you do not have a blended family, executing a life estate deed is a wise move from a financial standpoint. It turns your house into a non-probate asset, which means that the beneficiary can inherit it immediately after you die; making your house a non-probate asset also protects your house from Medicaid asset recovery claims if you enter a nursing home as a Medicaid beneficiary.

In a life estate deed, you designate one person as the life tenant and another as the remainder beneficiary. The life tenant, for example your spouse, has the right to live in the house for the rest of his or her life, although the life tenant does not own the house and therefore cannot sell it or bequeath it in a will. After you and the life tenant have both died, the remainder beneficiary, such as your son or daughter from your first marriage, becomes the legal owner of the house.

What Can Go Wrong With a Life Estate Deed?

The biggest source of conflict with life estate deeds is that they give the remainder beneficiary the right to meddle during your lifetime. Once you sign a life estate deed, you cannot sell the house, pledge it as collateral for a loan, or refinance its mortgage without the written consent of the remainder beneficiary. This means that, in some cases, life estate deeds can open the door to exactly the kind of blended family conflict that they were designed to prevent.

Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C. About Keeping Your House Out of Probate

A Washington, D.C. estate planning attorney can help you draft a life estate deed for your house.  Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C.  in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.

Source:

peoples-law.org/life-estates