Metro®Boston, Publication Date: March 7, 2012
By: George Warshaw
Last week I wrote about the loving son who filed to evict his 98 year old mother from the home she previously deeded to him. The son gave up!
How can a parent protect one’s home while deeding it, with good intentions, to a child to manage or oversee?
The first caution I must mention is that planning to accomplish one thing for older parents often makes a mess of something else.
For example, you may wish to transfer the deed of a property into a trust for ease of inheritance; the transfer, however, may create an unintended Medicaid planning problem.
To safeguard a parent’s home, one should think twice (or three or four times) before deeding it to one’s children. The loss of control for the elderly Mrs. K almost cost her dearly.
There are several safeguarding techniques I like to use.
A parent can grant the home to a child or relative and reserve a “life estate”; i.e. a right to live in and use the house for one’s life; or place the property into a trust.
If using a trust, it is often valuable to require the consent of a trusted advisor (lawyer, financial planner, etc.) before a trustee can sell or mortgage the house.
More on this Next Week. © 2012 George Warshaw.
George Warshaw is a real estate attorney and author. He represents buyers and sellers of homes and condos in Massachusetts, and prepares wills, trusts, and estate plans. George welcomes new clients and questions at metro@warshawlaw.com.
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Legal Advice: Laws, and court decisions interpreting them, change frequently and this article is not updated as laws change. The content and information contained in this article is neither intended as legal advice nor shall establish an attorney-client relationship.
If you missed my column in the Wednesday Boston®Metro newspaper you can read it here! And contact me if you need help in buying or selling your home or in planning your will. - George
George in the Metro 