Transferring home to son

[Jim S.]

Because Oklahoma, the home of high taxes, has a death tax i am considering transferring my home to my son before my death. Has anyone done this?.

[Jim S.]

Because Oklahoma, the home of high taxes, has a death tax i am considering transferring my home to my son before my death. Has anyone done this?.

[GaryKD]

Hi Jim,
Before taking any ad hoc actions, consider consulting an elder care attorney (one with Medicaid skills). Ask how best to:
1. avoid probate
2. avoid estate taxes
3. avoid having to pay for nursing home care until you are broke, when Medicaid will take over. This may be the most important question. Over 1/2 of us will not die suddenly in our sleep. We will out live either our body or our brain. This means a huge number of eldery will require nursing home care. In my area this runs about $6K/month! This is for basic nursing home care.

Medicaid rules vary, by state. The rules are different for married vs single (widow, widower, divorce or single) people.

I think, in all states the look back window (the time in which Medicaid can look back into history and grab your assets) is 60 months from the date of Medicaid eligibility.

If you want your estate to go to your heirs instead of the nursing home, find an attorney, with Medicaid skills. It will be $s well spent.

[Riverdog]

Gary gives good advice. My father passed away almost 2 years ago. We took Mom to meet with an attorney and, among many things, found out that in her state (ND) they have a six year rule on real property transfers. Consequently, she transfered the title to her home to us kids at that time and will live in it until she passes or needs a different living arrangement.

All states are different so consulting with an attorney familiar with OK law should be money well spent.

[Jim S.]

I appreciate your thoughts and will contact an attorney right after the holidays. I will be interested in finding out the the window. I will not give this state another dollar.

[David K]

An elder attorney is the way to go. Before my father's death, we met with one and she knew how to transfer the house, manage the savings accounts, make loans to me interest free and with minimum paybacks, etc. I basically have control of everything in my mom's estate now and it has been done without any tax conquences to anyone. I am in the state of Georgia. My attorney is an elder attorney who was previously a RN so she has seen both sides of the problems of our elder adults and legal problems that can be encountered with aging, medicare, and estate taxes.

[RVRONINPA]

All good advice...there is also something called a living trust where the trust is there but the trustees are owners and if one passes away the other takes over...check this option out also...Good luck Ron

[Paul Heuvelhorst]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by RVRONINPA:
All good advice...there is also something called a living trust where the trust is there but the trustees are owners and if one passes away the other takes over... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
It is called a "Revocable Living Trust". We have one and everything we own and do passes to the survivor without any consequences, and without going through Probate Court. When the surviving spouse dies, the trust is taken over by the "successor trustee(s)", whoever you name... in our case, our sons, again without the consequences of the Probate Court. Do not consider an "Unrevocable Trust".

I am not an Wills/Trust attorney. My wife and I simply have a "Revocable Living Trust". It does cost more initially than a will, but in the long run is less costly to the estate. As others have suggested, consult a good attorney to specializes in Elder Care and Wills & Trusts.

[GaryKD]

Be carefull of confusing what happens when one dies with what happens before one dies. The trusts mentioned might be good for avoiding probate. They will not protect assets from being used for nursing home care before Medicaid takes over. Anyone who thinks they have their estate assets protected from probate, taxes AND Medicaid and has not consulted an elder care attorney, may need to reconsider seeking an attorney specializing in elder care. As posted earlier, Medicaid rules are different in each state. It is a fast changing world. There are things we need to protect our hard earned and life long assets from that were not in the picture 20+ years ago.

From what I understand, anything with the word "revokable" in it, Medicaid considers and an asset that will be used for nursing home cost before Medicaid will begin paying the costs.

[Route 66]

As Gary has posted, Medicaid is omnipotent. More so than the IRS.

The biggest disadvantage to a parent transferring ownership of their house to their child is, the IRS will consider the child as having owned the house from the day the parent first purchased it, not from the date of transfer.

This means the child will have to pay capital gains taxes from the parents initial purchase date when the child sells the house.

However, this will shield the house from Medicaid.

If the parent dies and the child inherits the house, then the inherited date is used for capital gains tax not the parent's purchase date when the house is sold.

Even with the capital gains tax, transferring the house to the child will result in a piece of the (asset) pie rather than no pie at all.

If your parent have prepaid their funeral, then that needs to be in a trust to prevent Medicaid claiming that as an asset. The funeral home can handle that trust.

A other have have posted, consulting an elder law attorney is well worth the money.

[mpost]

Getting back on topic so to speak, my inlaws traded us even up their Winnie for our pop up. That way there was no tax on the title transfer/ registration because it was an even trade. I then helped them sell their pop up. This was recommended to me by the Dept of Motor Vehicles.

[bldrbob]

We know someone who transfered their home to the son.The son got sick and died and they had to go thru reinheriting their home.
Bob