What happens to your home when you pass away?

When you pass away, what happens to your house?  It goes to your kids…right?

Maybe, but not before this happens first.  Most people do not have their homes set up correctly, so they go through the probate process.  When your home is in probate, it gets sent to the courts, which determine what to do with your property.  In most cases, it gets sold and the court decides based on your will or if you don’t have a will, the state of California laws determine that for you. 

Here is why this is a big deal. Assuming everyone is playing nice and not contesting the probate, the process is still expensive and takes about a year to complete without any complications.   

For example, if your home is worth $1,000,000 and you go through probate, the state sets attorney fees at $23,000; you’ll also need an executor who will get paid an additional $23,000, so now those costs reduce what your family receives.  Not only that, the estate will incur the costs of any mortgages, taxes, insurance, and maintenance on the property while waiting for the probate process to be complete.  

So what you will want to do, is to put your home into a trust.  There are two main types of trusts, a revocable or an irrevocable trust.

Most trusts are set up to avoid going through the public probate process.  Trusts can be complicated, and I highly recommend hiring an attorney to help you set up a trust right for you.  In just a few hours, you can have a plan that will save your family thousands of dollars and a lot of stress.  I can give you a list of three affordable estate planning attorneys to help you!

Share this with someone who needs help protecting their assets.