[catonsville]

We put our Kids on the Deed to our Home. Should we remove them, and let them inherit the home? We have Wills, Advance Medical Directives and Powers of
Attorneys.

We are up in age and were thinking of getting a Living Revocable Trust as well.

[Fr_Chuck]

Did you add them on the deed, along with your name ?

Issues are, if they get debts and a lien get applied to house. There are also other tax issues

[catonsville]

Good reason to remove them. No, we added them many years after we owned the home.

[joypulv]

One reason to add children to a deed is to bypass probate, so that they own it immediately upon your death of whichever one of you dies last. But that's not a good enough reason in light of the reasons not to. They won't owe inheritance taxes on it.

You need to assess your financial situation as a whole, especially possible needs for long term medical care in old age. A home still in your name within 5 years before needing Medicaid to cover what Medicare doesn't, will be taken and sold to pay your state for those funds. Medicare covers very little when someone gets to the stage of nursing home care.

Extended care policies cover 2 years of nursing home care. My parents paid something like 25,000 into such a policy over many years and never used it, dying at home. It's pretty much a guessing game.

A trust is a good idea, keeping in mind that the bank takes a pretty hefty fee each year. But it puts investments in their hands, hopefully earning a lot more than the fee, and it keeps children from arguing over who has POA and who is managing your money properly if you can't.

If you have enough assets in addition to the house, see a financial advisor, or go online to various sites like AARP for general advice. Countless people don't, and lose all they have in their final years. This is not to say that you will get the same advice from any two advisors. Be well informed before you act.

[ebaines]

Good advice above, but a couple of other issues to consider with respect to names on the deed. If you have already added the kids to the deed that means they are already co-owners with you. You have made a gift of ownership to them, and consequently you should have filed a gift-tax return to document that fact. In all likelihood no gift taxes are actually owed, but there is a requirement to file if the value of the gift to any one individual is worth more than $14K.

Second - having already made that gift you cannot simply undo it. You cannot "remove them" from the deed without their permission. They would have to make a gift of their co-ownership back to you, and in turn they would have to file gift tax forms.

From a tax planning perspective in mist cases it would have been better to let them inherit the house rather than have then receive it via gift. Assuming the current fair market value of the house is greater than your cost basis, the capital gains tax implications for selling a house that has been given as a gift would most likely be much more onerous than the tax implications for selling a house that has been inherited. The cost basis for inherited property is "stepped up" to the market value at tie of death of the decedant, so it's likely that little or no capital gain taxes would be owed on a house that is inherited and sold, as compared to possibly large capital gain taxes owed on a house that is received via gift and then sold. So in general, and assuming the kids would sell the house after you pass, I would suggest that it's better for then to inherit than become owners through a gift.