Articles Posted in ESTATE PLANNING

When you purchase property in San Diego County, you will have to specify how you are going to hold title. Title is the evidence that you are the owner. The form of ownership is called “vesting”. The escrow company will ask you how you want to hold title so the deed to your new property can be prepared. Here are some of the more common forms of holding title.

Sole Ownership

When you hold title as the sole owner, you own the entire interest. Usually sole ownership is for single individuals. A man or woman who has not been married may hold title as “John Doe, a single man.” A man or woman who was previously married but legally divorced might hold title as “Jane Doe, an unmarried woman.” If you are married and want to take title in your name alone, your spouse must relinquish all interest in the property since real property conveyed to a married couple in California is presumed to be community unless otherwise stated. Title in that case might read “John Doe, a married man, as his sole and separate property.”

If you die with a will or intestate (without a will), the probate court has no discretion to withhold money from your legal heirs if they are 18. There are many 18 year olds who are not capable of managing significant amounts of money at that age. One way to insure that your children do not receive distributions from your estate at such a young age is to create a children’s trust or build one into your own revocable living trust. In either case you can be creative as to when your children receive distributions and for what purposes.

A trust can structure your child’s inheritance by making specific provisions for the use of trust assets. As an example you may provide that upon your death, a family member will be the successor trustee who will use the trust assets for the “health, education, maintenance, and welfare” of the child. Will that include money for vocational training or starting a business? Will the trustee have the discretion to buy a car for the child to go to work or school? These are some issues your trust provisions can address.

What about distributions when the child becomes an adult? You can specify in the trust that distributions be made at age 25, 30, or 35 or any other intervals you wish. You can specify that a distribution be made upon graduation from college, or that there is to be no distribution at all until the child turns 35 or 40.

You don’t have to be rich to need a trust. If you own your home in San Diego where the cost of the average home is high, you need a trust to avoid probate. Even without a home, if you have total assets over $100,000 you need a trust to avoid probate.

You don’t have to be rich to afford a trust. Even with this economy, a trust is so important that it may warrant cutting back on other things to afford it.

1. Painless Savings Techniques: One technique for savings is to put every $5 bill you receive into a jar or tucked away in a drawer. You would be surprised how many $5 bills you receive in a month. You can easily save several hundred dollars a month if you faithfully make this a habit. Some people deposit the change they find in their pocket or wallet into a jar. Taking those jars to the bank and converting them into money to set aside for a trust is a way to save painlessly. The Keep the Change Program at Bank of America rounds up every purchase to the nearest dollar amount and transfers the difference into your savings account. The bank will even match your savings for the first 3 months.