David and Cheryl own a cabin in Brainerd. Upon their death, they want to pass the cabin down to their four adult children. They want to use a transfer on death deed because their neighbor told them it would result in avoiding probate. David and Cheryl execute and record the transfer on death deed. Several years later they both die tragically in a car accident.
Transferring the property to their children will be easy, right?
The cabin is transferred to the four kids and a probate proceeding is not required to make the transfer. However, now the problem is that two of them want to keep their interest in the cabin and two of them want to sell the cabin. Another complication is that all four of them AND their spouses will have to sign the deed if the property is sold. You know what they say….more people, more problems. So, they will likely end up in court anyway. Could this have been avoided? Yes, they could have avoided probate and had someone designated with decision making authority if the property had been transferred to their trust instead of the children directly.
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