QUESTION
adding adult son to title of home as tenants in ommon.
Asked on Oct 07th, 2013 on Trusts and Estates - California
More details to this question:
The house is in a trust for my son. Currently he is renting from me but since I retired it's difficult to keep up my bills and I took a $100,000 loan on that house. I want him on title so when I die it transfers to him and also need him to pay the upcoming taxes. May I be able to add him to title and if so, how do I go about it? I don't want anything more to do with that property as it will be his in the future.
1 ANSWER
There are many different directions you could go but adding him as a "tenants in common" would NOT be the best move based on your situation. Possibly you mean a "joint tenant" as that would automatically pass the house to him at your death. However, you need to dig deeper before you jump to that. Sometimes the simplest (deeding the house to your son outright or by joint tenancy) creates other problems. For example, transfering a house after death is substantially better for capital gains (income) tax purposes. Thus, since you already have a trust maybe it would be smarter to amend your trust to transfer the house after death!? I would encourage you to talk to an estate planning attorney and determine what's best in your situation. Good luck. -John
Answered on Oct 08th, 2013 at 10:02 AM