I'LL JUST GIVE EVERYTHING TO MY KIDS"
I’ll keep it short today. If you want to transfer your house to your kid right now and put his name on your bank account because the planning process seems too daunting, DON’T DO IT!
We see people who, through common sense, figure that if they do not own anything in their own name they will not have to deal with the issues I have mentioned over the last week in these posts, end up creating much larger problems for themselves. They jeopardize the assets they have accumulated during their life by exposing them to their children’s spouses, creditors, and lawsuits. Yikes. (Oh and by the way, the child on the bank account legally owns the account when you die, to the exclusion of your other children, so be especially careful if this is not your intention).
The DIY route is not ok in this area, no matter what Legal Zoom tells you. Protecting your assets from long term care costs and state liens cannot be done by giving away your assets (a form of DIY estate planning) or using form documents available from legal forms stores. (Just wait for our probate nightmares blog posts).
More is required but it is not insurmountable! So if you are thinking this, or your parent has suggested you put your name on their house or bank account, make sure you schedule a free initial consultation to learn what to do instead. I’ll go over the exact steps to get this taken care of without making problematic mistakes that seem like common sense solutions.
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