Protecting Your Family Home

Protecting Your Family Home

For most families, a home is among their most valuable assets, both financially and emotionally. It is important to be thoughtful about how you are going to leave a home and to whom.  If there are issues between siblings, tax considerations, or other family needs to consider, the parent should make an informed decision about what to do with the house and ensure that their estate plan reflects these wishes.

It is particularly important to come up with a specific plan for your home.  Compared with inheriting a stock or bank account, homeownership is complex, with ongoing costs and maintenance. In addition, many homes come with lots of memories that can make it very tricky for you to decide who will inherit it. If the person who inherits the home doesn’t want to keep ownership of it, they may incur legal fees, taxes, and other transaction costs to sell it. In addition, many states have estate tax exemption limits far below the federal level. If the value of the home exceeds that limit, the heir may face a state estate tax bill and may have insufficient funds to pay it. That could force a sale of the home or force the heir to seek financing options to pay the bill.  When there is an outstanding mortgage on the home, careful consideration needs to be given to how the debt will be handled when the home passes to the heirs.

To prepare for a smooth and efficient transfer of your home, start by thinking about your goals and your financial situation. Consider what would you like to see happen with the house? For instance, does one of your children still live with you, and do you want to provide an option for them to stay in the house for some period of time? Do you have a vacation home you would like to see shared by future generations?

You need to be mindful that your children may have different ideas about whether they would want to live in, sell, or keep the property for investment purposes.  When an estate plan is created based on an incorrect set of assumptions, it can create discord among family members.  The best-case scenario is when parents make informed choices and created a well thought out estate plan so the kids don’t have to worry or make major changes after the inheritance.

STAY UP TO DATE

Subscribe to our newsletters

 
Subscribe to one or more of our newsletters, delivering meaningful insight on topics that matter to you and your family.
ebl home subscribe image

FURTHER READING

Latest Blog Posts

If you and your partner reside in Washington state and are unmarried, you each might qualify for the legal protections availed to you by law by classifying your relationship as a committed intimate relationship.

One of the greatest gifts you can give your family is to build an estate plan while you are alive and well. Estate planning allows you to formally communicate your wishes so they will not be up for interpretation by…

A co-executor can help facilitate the distribution of assets, minimize conflicts, and provide much-needed support to grieving families.

The law makes it easy for people to get out of bad marriages. Washington, like most states, acknowledges no-fault divorce. This means that if you want a court to dissolve your marriage, all you have to do is file for…

Washington state’s laws on non-marital relationships, including committed intimate relationships (CIRs), can be convoluted, especially in the absence of a cohabitation agreement. Given the ambiguity that exists for unmarried partners in Washington state, thinking about the future and what it could look like is more important than ever. This is especially true in terms of aging, incapacity, and death. Fortunately, you can address each of these issues in a comprehensive estate plan.

Prenups and postnups can strengthen a marriage, given how they require relationship partners to put their cards on the table for each other to see, offering transparency and peace of mind. Despite their similarities, there are a few significant differences between the two.

Child support is one of the most contentious issues in divorce cases where parties have minor children. Even though Washington state law uses the same complex mathematical formula to determine the amount of child support for each child, there is…

Family law and estate planning often intersect. This is particularly true when contemplating divorce, remarriage, or blending families.

At some point during your divorce case, friends and family members whose own marriages ended in divorce probably told you that it gets better, and it does. Of course, from your perspective, getting out of a bad marriage might be…

Co-parenting over a long distance when you are a non-residential parent does not have to equate to sacrificing involvement in your children’s lives. But it likely does mean you will have to make tweaks in your communication and parenting style to accommodate the new living arrangement.