Children in Estate Planning

Some people might think that it is a good idea to create a joint tenancy with rights of survivorship with their children listed as a joint tenant. While that would allow the children to take the property after the death of the parent without ever going through the probate process, this arrangement could create several problems for the parents if the parent is not careful.

Most problems would probably arise as a result of the child owning a present property interest in the house. For example, the property could be subject to divorce proceedings, tax collection, or the child’s creditors. Furthermore, giving a child an interest in the property means that the child would be entitled to sell or permanently reside on the property. A parent might seriously want to consider using more traditional means of transferring title to his or her children. A will or trust might be an option that a parent might want to consider in lieu of creating a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship.

See Evan Guthrie, Why You Should Not Put Property In Your Child’s Name As Part of An Estate Plan, Ezine @rticles, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.