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.
Protect Assets With Estate Planning Including Will
When you own a home with a partner who has children from another relationship you may be wondering how to protect your assets. While it's good to buy a home as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, a will can ensure that your property inheritance desires are met. Estate planning, including a will, can protect other assets as well.
Trust Helps Save On Inheritance Tax
Setting up a trust for inheritance purposes ensures that assets are divided the way the deceased person wanted. A trust can also help save on inheritance taxes. Upon death, the assets in the trust are divided up among the beneficiaries.
How Is Property Divided With No Will?
How will property be divided if there is no will? How the property will be divided depends on how the title to the property is held.
Understanding Inheritance Of Property
A woman inherited a home along with her brother. After her brother passed away, is the woman now the sole owner of the inherited home? How the title of the home is outlined will determine who now owns the brother's share of the inherited home.
Inherited Property Transferred Out Of Living Trust
When you inherit property, it is inherited at its current market value. An estate will usually pay any federal estate or state taxes owed on inherited property. It may also be beneficial to leave it in the trust.
Siblings Negotiate Parent’s Estate
How the IRS treats inherited property depends on how the ownership of the home is outlined. In this case, one child is already on the title of a home with her mother, so it depends on if they own the home "jointly" or each own a specific share. What is outlined in the owner's will will also dictate what will happen to the property when the mother dies.
Hire Attorney To Resolve Title Problems
When your spouse passes away and the title to your home has the name of another individual on it, what can you do? One option is to offer to buy out the other party whose name is on the title to the home. Another option is to hire an estate attorney to resolve title problems.
Living Trust May Help With Inheritance
A living trust many be the best way to pass on property that you have inherited. If you don't have a trust or will documenting how you want things passed on, the laws of your state will prevail.
Structuring Your Inheritance To Avoid Conflict
Designating children as beneficiaries to brokerage and bank accounts can lead to difficulties. Minor children can't inherit cash. You need to have the cash and financial assets in a trust with a trustee (and backup trustee) named until they become of legal age, or until you feel they are old enough to manage these resources appropriately. Leaving real estate to children can be tricky. It's expensive to own and maintain -- and they may not have enough income to keep the property going and they may not be living anywhere near the actual property.
Name Forged On Deed
A homeowner put her father in charge of her property and finances while she was incarcerated. During that time, the title to her home was changed to the father. When her dad "acquired" the property, he could only have obtained title in one of three ways and none of them would have been legal. Ilyce explains how titles are transferred and concludes that someone must have forged her name