If you are like many homeowners, your home is likely your family’s most valuable and treasured asset, so you want to plan wisely to ensure your home will pass to your heirs in the most efficient and safe manner possible when you die or in the event you become incapacitated by illness or injury.
Wills and trusts are commonly used to pass on wealth and other assets to your loved ones, but putting your home in a trust has a number of benefits compared to using a will.
Avoiding Probate
One of the primary advantages of using a trust to pass on your home to your heirs is the avoidance of the court process known as probate. Unlike a will, assets held in trust do not have to go through probate. During probate, the court oversees the will’s administration, ensuring your assets are distributed according to your wishes, with automatic supervision to handle any disputes.
However, probate can be a long and expensive process, which can be emotionally draining for your loved ones. Depending on the complexity of your estate, probate proceedings can drag out for months or even years, and your family will likely have to hire an attorney to represent them, which can result in costly legal fees that can drain your estate. Plus, probate is open to the public, which can make things risky for those you leave behind, especially if the wrong people take an interest in your family’s affairs.
Unlike a will, if your trust is properly set up and maintained, your family won’t have to go through probate to inherit your home. Instead, your home will immediately pass to your loved ones upon your death, without the need for any court intervention. Avoiding the delay of probate can be especially critical when it comes to a home to ensure the property is properly maintained, since the home may fall into disrepair while probate is being completed.
Finally, unlike wills, trusts remain private and are not part of the public record. So, with a properly funded trust, the entire process of transferring ownership of your home can happen in the privacy of your lawyer’s office, not a courtroom.
Protection Against Incapacity
In addition to passing on your home to your loved ones when you die, putting your home in a trust can also protect your home in the event you become incapacitated by serious illness or injury. In contrast, a will only goes into effect upon your death, so it would be useless for protecting your home in the event you become incapacitated.
If you do become incapacitated with only a will in place, your family will have to petition the court to appoint a conservator or guardian to manage your affairs related to homeownership, including paying your mortgage and property taxes, keeping up with your home’s general maintenance, and overseeing the sale of your home. Like probate, the process of petitioning the court to appoint a conservator or guardian can be costly, time-consuming, and stressful.
And there’s always the possibility that the court could appoint a family member as a guardian that you’d never want to manage your family home. Or the court might select a professional guardian, putting a total stranger in control of your family’s most precious asset.
With a trust, however, you can include provisions in the terms of the trust that appoint someone of your choosing—not the court’s—as successor trustee to manage your home’s ownership and/or sale if you’re unable to do so yourself due to incapacity. For example, your trust could authorize your successor trustee to sell your home in order to pay for the costs of long-term care should you require it.
Other reasons for putting your home in a trust include having control over asset distribution and avoiding family conflict. Whatever your reason for planning, it is important that you find the solution that is right for your family.
Although putting your home in a living trust can be an ideal way to pass your home to your loved ones, each family’s circumstances are different. This is why we will not create any documents until we know what you actually need, and what will be the most affordable solution for you and your family—both now and in the future—based on your family dynamics, assets, and desires.
The best way for you to determine whether or not your estate plan should include a will, a trust, or some combination of the two is to meet with us for a Family Wealth Planning Session. We’ll take you through analysis of your assets, what’s most important to you, and what will happen to your loved ones when you die or if you become incapacitated.
Sitting down with us will empower you to feel 100% confident that you have the right combination of estate planning solutions to fit with your unique asset profile, family dynamics, and budget. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.