Does Your Estate Plan Require Your Children to Sell Their Childhood Home?
In crafting your estate plan, you have probably put a lot of thought into protecting your children from financial burdens. Maybe you have been giving cash gifts to family members for as long as you have been able to afford it, to make sure that your estate is not subject to federal estate tax. You might have established a trust and transferred property to it so that your heirs can inherit the property in the trust more quickly. Conventional wisdom says that, if you are following anyone’s emotions in your estate planning journey, it is your own emotions that should guide you. No one’s guilt trips can follow you to the next world, and they should not cast a dark shadow over your golden years, either. You can disinherit anyone you choose and lavish money on the people and animals who filled your life with joy. Likewise, it is your choice, and yours alone, whether to have your children inherit your house or to sell it and spend your golden years traveling by RV or living in a lavish assisted living facility in Manhattan. For help using your family home in a way that benefits you, without causing unnecessary stress for your children, contact a Bronx estate planning lawyer.
There Is More Than One Way for a Family Home to Become Generational Wealth
The fact that you bought a house and paid off the mortgage puts your children in a stronger financial position than most, no matter what your estate plan says about your family home. No matter what you decide, the task of selling your house might fall to your children, and although they will eventually benefit financially, the process will not be painless. If your children inherit your house, they might decide to sell it after the estate settles. Your estate, represented by your children, might sell the house during probate, either because the sale is a provision of your will or because your estate must sell the house to repay debts.
You might think you are ahead of the game by selling the house while you are alive. Your children would rather inherit money that they can spend wherever they are than a house in the Bronx. At your age, though, you will probably need their help with the sale, or at least with packing your belongings.
How to Make the Sale of Your Family Home Easier on Your Children
Your children might grieve for their childhood home. This can happen even if they have not lived there for decades, and even if you are still alive when the house sells. The best way to make things less stressful is to let them know, years in advance, what your plans are for the house, but be firm about your decision. If you are determined to sell the house, the only way your children can keep it is to buy it.
Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Estate Planning Attorney
An estate planning lawyer can help you sell your family home or provide for its sale in your will. Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.
Source:
msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/the-hard-truth-about-selling-your-childhood-home-nobody-talks-about/ss-AA2asYUv?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=6a85cc6acabf45f9b1620a2d89cf165a&ei=26#image=9