For many families, their home holds great financial and sentimental value. This extends to other property within the family – secondary homes, vacation homes and more. As you are preparing your estate plan, you need to specially consider real estate when passing your assets to your loved ones.
While you may at first consider giving joint ownership to your children, that idea may lead to issues down the road. Forbes explains that leaving a treasured property to siblings that they jointly own may open the door to a wide array of disagreements. They may not agree on who gets to use the property at which times. They might argue over the maintenance and costs associated with the property. At one point, one of them may want to sell the property and sell his or her shares to someone outside the family. Not to mention, there could be issues if one of them passes away or gets a divorce.
You could simply leave ownership in the hands of one trusted individual. However, if you wish to assign joint ownership without the worry of dispute or disagreement, one option is to put the ownership of the property in a limited liability company. Establishing an LLC will allow you to set up the operating rules. You can make the rules about usage, maintenance and costs. You also can add a stipulation that prohibits the sale of the property to anyone outside the family.
Doing this instead of just leaving the property in your will to your children helps ensure that this special property stays in the family and continues to allow future generations to enjoy it. To learn more about this option and how to build a custom and effective estate plan, reach out to a knowledgeable estate lawyer.
This information is for education and is not legal advice.