Transfer On Death (TOD) Deeds for Real Estate

[Kwirk]

When we sold our Va house we were required to withdraw the existing TOD. The attorney we hired did the withdrawal and created a new TOD for the new house.

[jkern]

I live in CA and have TOD deeds on my house and three rental properties. For me the purpose is to avoid probate for my single heir (daughter).

[I am He]

WI has a TOD option.

[sheehs1]

I think if more people knew about TOD for real estate and if their state allows it, more people would use it. I have an appointment with the lawyer to sign the new Deeds on Tuesday of next week.

Could probably have done it myself but this way, no one at the Court House will hang it up due to a technicality. One phone call with her told me she was going to be a problem. Ha!

With both pieces of real estate now TOD, all bank and brokerage accounts either TOD or with IRA beneficiary designations (except the ones at my local bank that I call "working" accounts and that I will take care of shortly), I am going to sit down and rewrite my will, getting rid of the Trust. Hoping to make things simpler for my single heir daughter.

Now I just have to take care of the stock I own in the Family Business, to avoid that going into probate.

Within the last 3 weeks, I also executed a Power of Attorney at my brokerage that ceases at my death. I was worried my daughter would not have funds to take care of me should it be needed. Getting her into a bank to change title on the local bank accounts and/or getting the bank to add to titles without her has not been the easiest. In some cases they wanted me to close and reopen the accounts and I didn't want to do that. This takes care of that.

My recent birthday definitely started me rethinking everything!

[pb4uski]

We've been going through an estate planning initiative to minimize what has to go through probate if DW and I die simultaneously.

In addition to TOD deeds, 5 states have enhanced life estate deeds (aka Lady Bird deeds) which are substantively the same as TOD. Florida, Michigan, Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Luckily, our two homes are in Florida and Vermont. Initially, I planned to establish a joint revocable living trust and change the deeds to have the properties owned by the joint trust. However, after finding out that our states allow Lady Bird deeds, I decided that was a better route. We'll sign the Lady Bird deed for our Florida home next week and do a Lady Bird on our Vermont home this summer.

I did find one use for the joint trust... to buy more ibonds... so creating it wasn't totally wasted effort... it only cost me $10 to have our signatures notarized anyway.

https://www.toupslaw.com/post/let-s-...-on-death-deed

[Tracer]

A few years ago I converted my General Warranty Deed of my condo to an Enhanced Life Estate (or Ladybird) Deed for grand total of $20 DIY.. $10 to download the Florida state specific form and another $10 to file it with the county. An estate attorney could probably do all the legwork and filing for you for around $200-300. It's not that hard to do it all yourself if you follow all the instructions perfectly.

With both deeds your beneficiary will inherit the property directly without going through probate. The drawback to the regular Life Estate is you give up total control to sell or mortgage your property without your beneficiary signing off on it. With the Enhanced (Ladybird), you can change your mind without their approval. As was mentioned though, the Enhanced version is only available in a few states.

[ChrisC]

A little knowledge about TODs in Virginia (or Life Estates in NY) can be dangerous to the misinformed.

Consider this thread in the BH forum a number of years ago: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=223449.

As to NY Medicaid rules on Life Estates, I'm pretty sure NY Medicaid takes into account the value of a Life Estate interest w/r/t the assets to be taken into account for Medicaid eligibility, though NY Medicaid does not seek recovery (or establish a Medicaid lien) on the remainderman's interest on the real estate.

Consult competent Virginia and NY lawyers for these issues.