“Hi. I’m paralegal Jenna moody with RetirementHelp.com. And today we’re talking about deeds.

So here lately I’ve been talking to a lot of clients about why can’t I just put my kid on my home, and that’ll keep it out of probate, right? Well, that’s true in a way. However, when you put a child on a deed for the home, if the child isn’t living with you, if there’s any kind of intention to sell the home in the future, that can lead to a lot of consequences for your children that you may not be thinking about.

So in order to kind of avoid those consequences, we like to talk to people about Trusts. That’s one thing. But we also like to talk about Transfer On Death Deeds. Transfer On Death Deeds are some of the easiest ways that you can keep your home out of probate. But at the same time, allowing the child to inherit the property, it avoids capital gains in the future.

You know, they don’t have to pay the extra taxes because they get that step up in basis. But then it also doesn’t open you up to additional liability. Some clients will be like, oh, I just have my kid on there and it’s fine, but the kid actually lives two states away, and people don’t think about the fact that if they have a child on their home and that home is not the child’s primary residence, and that child possibly gets into a car accident, then they can get sued, that property becomes liable. That property becomes vulnerable to a lawsuit. And people don’t think about those kinds of things.

So it’s really, really important that when you’re thinking about adding a child to the home and how to avoid probate, how to make sure that your assets pass to your loved ones. It’s just really important to think a little bit further, and come in and talk to an attorney because the things that you may think that you’re doing right for your children may not always be the right way to go about it.

So what kind of questions or issues have you guys run into? You know, maybe you’ve already put your child on the deed and you’re like, “oh, maybe I should do something different.” Or maybe you’ve run into something that you can’t figure out how to fix. Feel free to comment below. We’re happy to answer questions.

That’s all the time we have today. I’m Jenna moody with retirement help.com research, rethink and retire.”