Estate Planning Weekly

Just last week I met with a client with three children. They wanted to leave the home they had built to all three of their children.  This can, and often is a bad idea. When you leave a single piece of real property to more than one person, conflicts can often arises. Most likely they will take ownership as tenants in common...meaning that each of them owns a undivided interest in the whole property. The conflict comes in determining how the real property will be used. Who gets to live there? Who pays the property taxes? How much is reasonable to pay the owner managing the property.  I often advise my clients to choose one person to inherit the each piece of real property and offset the value of the real property with other assets to other beneficiaries.  If it is a must that the property must stay in the family, there are solutions to set down rules for the use and enjoyment of real property. Those solutions are often expensive. If its important that to you that you leave real property to more than one pe