My son and his fiancé are buying a home. It's closing this week. My wife and I are cosigning but prefer not to be on the title for liability reasons. Yet we are concerned that in case of their deaths we might need a document staying the ownership does to us. Is there a simple and inexpensive way to deal with this (wills, do it yourself living trusts), or should be really put our names on the title?

I'd get my name on the deed asap. If they were to pay the home may be willed to someone other than you but the debt will still be yours. If they have kids down the road the home would go to the kids but you'd still be the co-signer who has to pay the debt

My son and his fiance are buying a home. It's closing this week. My wife and I are cosigning but prefer not to be on the title for liability reasons.
You are gagging at a gnat and swallowing a camel. The remote possibility of liability for being a joint owner of real property is minuscule as compared with the very real potential liability associated with co-signing a mortgage note; particularly when one considers that you would be foolish indeed not to require them to have homeowner's insurance (with yourselves named as additional insureds). If you do co-sign this loan, be sure to engage an attorney. I suggest that you get a separate written agreement with your son and his fiancé.

Unfortunately, in the present day one I doesn't know if by "fiance" you mean a person with whom he is shacked up or, on the other hand, a woman who he intends to marry in the foreseeable future. Because if an unmarried couple is going to buy a home together, they should also negotiate a written agreement concerning such things as their mutual rights and obligations with respect to the home in the event they split up.


Yet we are concerned that in case of their deaths we might need a document staying the ownership does to us. Is there a simple and inexpensive way to deal with this (wills, do it yourself living trusts), or should be really put our names on the title?

You could get them to execute wills together with a contract to make the wills, but I advise you to put your names on the title instead, as discussed above.