One of my favorite stories is about the woman he came for.
an estate plan consultation.
He told me he didn’t think he needed a living trust because
when her husband died, all her assets had been kept in
joint tenancy and all I had to do was file some affidavits
along with his death certificate, and “poof” was now the
owner, without succession.
She thought this was great, she had gone ahead and added her
daughter to all her real estate as co-owner. She
actually prepared and recorded the deeds (she was a real retiree
estate broker). I looked at them and sure enough, the daughter
now he had the title with the mother as co-owner.
But now came the real reason he had come to see me. the daugther
had become involved with a new man who was one of those protesters
who believe that the Internal Revenue Code (and the Internal Revenue Code)
Service) is unconstitutional. In protest, they had decided to stop
pay income taxes or file income tax returns.
Mom was now worried about the facts she had recorded and
he wanted his daughter’s name removed. I can help?
Well, the first suggestion was that the daughter sign and record
deeds that return the joint tenancy interest that the mother had given.
Mom had thought about that, but when asked, the daughter told her
mother who was worrying too much and had nothing to worry about
on. She refused to sign the deeds returning the title.
Point? Joint tenancy is easy to create, but difficult
to end.
Once you put your child (or anyone else) on the title, that property
is considered part of your property and is subject to the
claims of your creditors.
Even if the daughter wasn’t a tax protester, if she was in a car
accident and you were at fault, the creditor could claim against
your interest in the property.
Joint custody can “kill” your will.
Then there is the story of the man who had remarried after his
first wife died. He wanted to leave part of his estate to her
children (from his first marriage) and part to his new wife.
He and the new wife loved each other so much that they decided to put
all her assets in “joint tenancy” (she didn’t have much
nothing, so it was his assets that changed).
Lo and behold, he died unexpectedly of a heart attack and his
the children now wanted to receive what they felt was coming from
your heritage
However, those of you who have attended my multimedia course
know that joint tenancy is a very particular way of owning the title of
goods or properties. At the time one of the co-owners dies,
your interest in the asset ends and the remainder survives
the co-owner is now the sole owner.
So regardless of what the man’s will says, joint tenancy
holding “killed the will” from the moment the husband died, his
the interest in all his estate died with him.
That left nothing in his estate to leave his children.
Sad but true.
I recommended a negligence action against the attorney who set
everything, but it turns out that they had done it themselves, using forms.
Good luck and until next time,
phil craig
PS Feel free to forward this to your friends.
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http://www.LivingTrustSecrets.com
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