How to Prevent My Father From Having a New Spouse Live in His Home
My question involves estate planning in the state of: North Carolina
Currently, we are considering how to deed over my father's house and ensure to him that he has rights to live there. However, I don't wish to allow any girlfriends or new wives the right to live there. Can I give my father 'occupancy' rights without hi having the right to move any one in to the home?
Re: Planning for a Second Wife
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Maevis
My question involves estate planning in the state of: North Carolina
Currently, we are considering how to deed over my father's house and ensure to him that he has rights to live there. However, I don't wish to allow any girlfriends or new wives the right to live there. Can I give my father 'occupancy' rights without hi having the right to move any one in to the home?
Let me understand, you are planning on how dad can give you his house and not have the power to decide if his future girlfriends or wife can live there? What are you giving him exactly?
Re: Planning for a Second Wife
Who owns the house now? Does father have any portion of it? Deeding isn't club membership, it is giving ownership to someone and you can't usually put conditions on it nor is it reversible.
Re: Planning for a Second Wife
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Welfarelvr
Let me understand, you are planning on how dad can give you his house and not have the power to decide if his future girlfriends or wife can live there? What are you giving him exactly?
:-) Well, actually, he's the one planning to give me the house, as it was my mother's wish and he's looking for long term planning regarding Medicare. However, there's quite the number of family heirlooms (my mother's family) that I don't currently have room for. He says it's all mine, and he may trust a lady that moves in to said home, but I don't. And I don't care for them to have access to those things. So, my question is, can I have power over who lives there, or do I need to rent a storage facility, should he want to move someone in.
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flyingron
Who owns the house now? Does father have any portion of it? Deeding isn't club membership, it is giving ownership to someone and you can't usually put conditions on it nor is it reversible.
Currently the house is owned by my father.
Re: Planning for a Second Wife
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Maevis
:-) Well, actually, he's the one planning to give me the house, as it was my mother's wish and he's looking for long term planning regarding Medicare. However, there's quite the number of family heirlooms (my mother's family) that I don't currently have room for. He says it's all mine, and he may trust a lady that moves in to said home, but I don't. And I don't care for them to have access to those things. So, my question is, can I have power over who lives there, or do I need to rent a storage facility, should he want to move someone in.
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Currently the house is owned by my father.
That's what I thought. Dad owns it. He should control it.
http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-qu...serpents-tooth
Re: Planning for a Second Wife
Wow....you assume much, Welfarelvr. This time next week the house will be in my name. This is HIS wish. However, I'm trying to figure out the best way to protect both him and my mother's family heirlooms.
Re: Planning for a Second Wife
He's being foolish. If he gives you the house now he screws himself for medicaid eligibility if that becomes necessary as well as a number of other things. There's nothing in the deed that is going to mean squat with your mother's heirlooms. Get your dad to an elder advisor before he makes a irreversible mistake.
Re: Planning for a Second Wife
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flyingron
He's being foolish. If he gives you the house now he screws himself for medicaid eligibility if that becomes necessary as well as a number of other things. There's nothing in the deed that is going to mean squat with your mother's heirlooms. Get your dad to an elder advisor before he makes a irreversible mistake.
Ok, lets be real here. He does not "screw himself" unless he needs nursing home care within the 5 year lookback period. We know nothing about dad's health or wellbeing so we don't know if there is any reasonable possibility that he will need nursing home care within the 5 year lookback period. We don't even know how old dad is at this point, or if he will EVER need nursing home care.
If dad is healthy then then the OP may end up being the one screwed by being gifted a house rather than inheriting a house, but that is another discussion.
I do agree that the heirlooms are dad's property and he has the right to do what he likes with them and that its tacky to say the least for the OP to be attempting to lay claim to those at this point or to assume that if dad remarries or lives with a girlfriend that somehow she has a right to control dad to that extent.
Again, however whether or not dad is screwing himself (rather than the OP being screwed) depends on his age and his medical and physical health.
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llworking
Ok, lets be real here. He does not "screw himself" unless he needs nursing home care within the 5 year lookback period. We know nothing about dad's health or wellbeing so we don't know if there is any reasonable possibility that he will need nursing home care within the 5 year lookback period. We don't even know how old dad is at this point, or if he will EVER need nursing home care.
In the real world, elderly people mess up a lot of things in their lives by giving away the homes they own, even more if the title will be in the hands of a controlling child, apparently with no retained life estate or with an attempt to retain a life estate subject to strings. Parents find themselves unable to refinance, unable to take out a second mortgage, unable to move, at risk of being kicked out of their own homes by the child who holds title.... Even leaving Medicaid liens aside, it can be an exceptionally bad idea. There's also the additional legal issue of whether any attempt to restrict dad from having a new spouse live in his own home would be a legally unenforceable restraint on marriage.
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If dad is healthy then then the OP may end up being the one screwed by being gifted a house rather than inheriting a house, but that is another discussion.
Loss of the step-up in basis is fairly made part of the same discussion, as depending on the value of the home the tax consequence can be significant.
This is dad's home, so dad should be talking to an independent estate planning lawyer to make sure that his future needs are adequately protected.
Re: Planning for a Second Wife
Agreed, ll. Medicare is one aspect of it. The other is if he just needs money for whatever purpose. Even adding the kid to the deed as a joint tenant will screw him out of some programs like reverse mortgages. An outright deed now will incur large tax liabilities for the "heir". A life estate won't, but that won't prevent Dad from shacking up with his new 18 year old girlfriend (it just keeps her from having claims on the house after he passes).
Absent full disclosure of the entire situation and what they are intending to accomplish, we can't make a recommendation which is why I RECOMMENDED they not poke at it with a stick and possibly screw it up for one or the both of them, but get everybody to a lawyer.
While you're dealing with houses and wills and the like, you might as well pick up an advanced medical directive and medical (and possibly general) powers of attorneys. I was extremely lucky to get all this straightened out with my mother-in-law after she was diagnosed with alzheimers but still in reasonable shape. There wasn't anything to "inherit" really, but having all the other paperwork made things more convenient towards the end.
Re: Planning for a Second Wife
Either way, it would be beneficial for Dad to see an Elder Law Attorney, and an Estate Planner.
OP: It would beneficial to you, as well, to see an Elder Law Attorney, as there are a lot of things you don't seem to understand about how this change of deed may affect your father in the future should he need Medicaid. They want a full accounting of everything - assets, bank accounts, for 5 years. And they are meticulous.
My grandmother needed a new stove. I had the only credit card in the home, so I charged it. She wrote me a check for the exact amount. The day she went into the hospital she also had my mom write a check to pay off my car. Guess who needed a Criminal Defense attorney? Me. Because Medicaid and the Nursing Home she went into later viewed it as "Taking Financial Advantage of a Senior". Also, her gift almost prevented her from being granted Medicaid. And with the Nursing Home, we were instructed we had to put the home up for sale immediately to help pay for her care. So you really would be best to both see an elder law attorney before you transfer that title.