Neyens Law, PLLC

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How to Leave Your Home to Your Children

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Homes are one of the greatest and most expensive assets many people have. As a parent, you may want your children to have your home after you die, but to ensure that your children are left with your home, there are some important steps that you must take.

Your children will only be left with your home if you have implemented one of these three options. Take some time to consider these options, talk to your family about them, and take the necessary pre-planning steps to ensure that your greatest asset remains in the family.

We strongly encourage you to discuss your options with an experienced estate planning attorney to determine what works best for your unique situation.

#1: Include Your Home in Your Will

In your will, you specify who your beneficiaries are that will inherit your assets after you pass away. By including your home in your will, during the probate process the court will ensure that your home is transferred to your children since they are listed as your beneficiaries. If you have more than one child, each child will inherit an undivided interest and must decide together whether to keep the house or sell it. Additional hassle and expense may be incurred if your children can’t agree on what to do with the home.

#2: Have a Living Trust

Set up a living trust so that when you die, your assets are transferred to your children. A benefit of setting up a living trust rather than just including your home on your will is that it saves time. Your children will not have to go through probate and will avoid expenses and delays that come with that process. The transfer of your home to your children will be a quick process with a living trust and will prevent them from spending excess money and time on the probate process. In addition, the Trustee you’ve selected to manage the trust can make a final decision on what should be done with the house if your children cannot agree. You must also transfer your house to the living trust before you die, otherwise the house will be forced to go through probate before being transferred to your children. A living trust is a seamless way to transfer assets to your children and may reduce conflict.

#3: Use a Transfer on Death Deed to Transfer Your Home

You can use transfer on death deed to ensure your home is given to your children without having to wait through probate or setting up a trust. With a transfer on death deed you own your home while you are alive and you can do whatever you’d like with it, for example, get a reverse mortgage. After you pass away, your home is immediately transferred to your children who you listed as beneficiaries in the deed.

However, there are a lot of issues that can arise with if you choose to pass your property to your children using this option. For example, if any of your children are minors when they inherit the property or your children don’t agree on what should be done with the home, a court proceeding will still be necessary. This results in additional delays and expenses. Another issue is that Minnesota law would require your children and their spouses to sign documents to sell the home even though the spouses are not owners. If you have three children who are married, your children and their spouses need to sign documents to sell the home. How often do you find six people that agree on anything?

If you have any further questions about how to ensure that your children are left with your home, give us a call – we can help you get things started.

Give us a call at 651-478-8999.

B2B

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It’s always a bonus to help a client that just happens to be a local business owner in your community. Business to business is something we really love doing at Neyens Law. We recently worked with the owners of Image360 in Woodbury, MN and got to get to know them better with a little Q & A!


Q: Why was designing an estate plan so important to you?

A: It’s been on our list of things to do for a long time — no question, it’s important to have these things buttoned up, but it’s hard to wrap your head around all that needs to be done. We wanted to make it easy for our kids and make sure that our asset value was not lost on lawyers and probate.

Image360

Q: What’s something that surprised you about your experience with Neyens Law?

A: So Simple — far easier than we could have imagined! The process went fast!

Q: What’s something most people don’t know about you that you are willing to share?

A: When I was a kid, I used to build and race Soap Box Derby Racers — and my last car is still hanging in my garage. I wish Portillo’s would take it and hang it on their ceiling instead of the one that’s there!

Q: What is your favorite family tradition and how did it become a tradition?

A: We do the things that most families do for holidays, etc. Certain family recipes are a must for holidays. If we are somewhere that doesn’t have them, we have to fix them when we get home.

Image360

Q: What sets your business apart?

A: As a signage,graphics, and display company, everything we make is custom-designed. On the display side (think lobbies of businesses, schools, churches, etc.) we do a lot of very complicated pieces with multiple materials and components — designing them is one thing, building them and installing them is another thing altogether. It takes a lot of detailed planning and project management to make those things happen and to have a really beautiful outcome when they’re all finished — essentially, we take a wall and make it a showpiece about a business or organization. All eyes are on that wall. Meticulous attention to detail is our silver bullet. It’s hard for small companies to do the volume of business that we do and still have an eye toward all those details, but it’s our mantra.

Q: What’s your favorite part of owning your own business?

A: Being an active part of the community and the people we get to work with is number one. Seeing the result of our creative work is also pretty cool — it’s really gratifying to see our work all over the place.

Image360

Q: What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

A: It’s harder than you think so be ready for the long hall. You have to give it everything you have to succeed – unless you are just plain lucky. You need more working capital than you think!

Q: How did you decide to start your business?

A: From scratch — no clients, no business — just an idea and a lot of blood, sweat and tears! We liked the idea of primarily B2B along with the creative and production components.

Q: Where do you find inspiration?

A: Absolutely everywhere. I’ll see something interesting — a shape, art, an application, a color (or the way the sun hits something), a design — we get a lot of ideas from modifications to things that we see in every day life. The creative opportunities in this business are really unlimited when you have an open mind.

Image360

How We’re Pivoting

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Everyone has had to make changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At Neyens Law we continue to operate during normal business hours and practice safe social distancing by offering virtual or safely distanced in-person meetings throughout the planning process.

What happens when it’s time to execute your final documents? To be effective, estate plan documents need to be signed in the presence of two witnesses and/or notarized. Therefore, we’ve implemented a new drive up and sign procedure for anyone that feels uncomfortable meeting in-person to finalize their estate plan documents. You can come to our office parking lot to drive up and sign all of your documentation in the comfort of your own car. Neyens Law will provide the two witnesses and notary, who will watch you sign from a safe distance.

Now more than ever having the right plan in place is partly for you, but it’s also for your loved ones. They are the ones who will suffer additional emotional trauma if they don’t have clarity on what you want, maybe even fighting with each other while you lay in the ICU. That’s not the legacy we want to leave for our families.

If you know someone who would benefit from learning more about implementing an estate plan, let them know we are here to help and that we offer both in-person and virtual meetings.

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