Estate planning includes all the planning that’s involved for setting up a will, a trust and making sure that your assets go to the people or organizations that you want to have them. Estate planning is complex — you should consider taxes when making plans for your assets to go to your heirs. If you don’t do estate planning you risk having your belongings managed by the state where you live, and your state’s laws may not match exactly what you want. Estate planning is especially important in blended families.
Gifting Real Estate With Minimum Gift Taxes
When you're giving property as a gift, do you're homework to minimize the gift taxes. If you want to give real estate as a gift and not pay high taxes to the IRS, you have to take a few important steps, and consulting an attorney will help you take them. Ilyce Glink walks you through the basics of gifting property with minimum gift taxes.
Transfer Deed Of Home To Avoid Student Loan Payments
Can a partner transfer the deed to their home and avoid paying off a student loan bill. There are legal and ethical angles to this proposition, but each person is responsible for his or her own debts and to the extent any of us has assets that can be used to pay these debts, we must use all or some of the assets for that purpose. Creditors have a legal right to pursue your partner for his debts when and if he stops paying his obligations. They do not have a right to pursue you, as long as you are not married to your partner.
Home Loan Limits
Conventional loan limits are changing and that presents an opportunity for those of you who have jumbo loans. Jumbo loans, also called non-conforming loans, are loans that exceed the loan limits set by various housing agencies and typically have higher interest rates. If you have a jumbo loan, take advantage of the new loan limit definitiions and switch to a conventional loan if you can. You'll save a half percent in the interest rate in the process -- that's a substantial savings over the life of your loan.
Homestead Exemptions Within A Living Trust
A living trust is a document that creates a separate entity to hold all of your assets. The trust holds the assets, which are managed by you as the sole trustee until you die. Upon your death, the assets are still in the trust and a new trustee can managet the assets and can even sell them.
Building A New Home? You May Need A Home Building Coach
Building a home? If you want to build a new home, you may want to consider working with a home-building coach.