Whether it’s to qualify for Medicaid, avoid probate, or reduce your tax burden, transferring your homeownership to your adult child during your lifetime may seem like a smart move. But in nearly all cases, it’s a huge mistake, which can lead to dire consequences for everyone involved.
With this in mind, before you sign over the title to your family’s beloved homestead, consider the following potential risks.
1. Your Eligibility For Medicaid Could Be Jeopardized
With the cost of long-term care skyrocketing, you may be worried about your (or your senior parent’s) ability to pay for lengthy stays in an assisted-living facility or a nursing home. Such care can be extremely expensive and potentially overwhelming even those families with substantial wealth.
Since neither traditional health insurance nor Medicare will pay for long-term care, you may look to Medicaid to help cover long-term care costs. However, to become eligible for Medicaid, you must first exhaust nearly every penny of your savings.
In light of this requirement, you may have heard that if you transfer your house to your adult children, you can avoid selling the home if you need to qualify for Medicaid. You may think transferring ownership of the house will help your eligibility for benefits, and this strategy may seem more manageable and less expensive than passing on your home (and other assets) through estate planning.
However, this tactic is a big mistake on several levels. It can not only delay – or even disqualify your Medicaid eligibility, but it can also lead to other serious problems. Here’s why: In February 2006, Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act, which included several provisions to reduce Medicaid abuse.
One of these provisions was a five-year “look-back” period for eligibility. Before you can qualify for Medicaid, your finances will be reviewed for any “uncompensated transfers” of your assets within the five years preceding your application. If such transfers are discovered, they can result in a penalty period that will delay your eligibility. Any transfers made beyond that five-year window will not be penalized.
The length of the penalty period is calculated by dividing the amount of the uncompensated transfer by the average cost of one month of private nursing home care in the state you live in. These days, the average cost of nursing home care is roughly $10,000 a month. Given these figures, for every $10,000 worth of uncompensated transfers made within the five-year window, your Medicaid benefits will be delayed for one month. So if you transferred the title to a home worth $500,000 within the look-back period, your Medicaid benefits would be delayed for 50 months.
In light of this, if you transfer your house to your children and then need long-term care within five years, it could significantly delay your qualification for Medicaid benefits – and possibly even prevent you from ever qualifying. Rather than taking such a risk, please consult with us, your Personal Family Lawyer®, to discuss safer and more efficient options to help cover the rising cost of long-term care, such as purchasing long-term care insurance.
2. Your Child Could Be Stuck With A Massive Tax Bill
Another drawback to transferring ownership of your home in this way is the potential tax liability for your child. If you’re elderly, you’ve probably owned your house for a long time, and its value has dramatically increased, leading you to believe that by transferring your home to your child, they can make a windfall by selling it. And by transferring the property before you die, you may think that you can save your child both time and money by avoiding the need for probate.
Probate is the court process used to distribute your assets according to the wishes outlined in your will or according to our state’s intestate succession laws if you don’t have a will. Depending on the complexity of your estate, probate can be a long and expensive process for your loved ones; however, that expense is likely to be relatively minor compared to the tax bill your heirs could face.
If you transfer your home to your child during your lifetime, they will have to pay capital gains tax on the difference between your home’s value when you purchased it and the home’s selling price when your child sells it. Depending on your home’s value, that tax bill can be astronomical.
In contrast, by transferring your home at your death via your estate plan, your child will receive what’s known as a “step-up in basis.” This tax savings is one of the only benefits of death, and it allows your child to pay capital gains taxes when they sell your home, based only on the difference between the value of the home at the time of inheritance and its sales price, rather than paying taxes based on the home’s value at the time you bought it.
For example, say you initially purchased your home for $80,000, and when you die, the home has appreciated to $250,000. Your daughter inherits the home upon your death, and then she sells it five years later for $300,000. With the step-up in effect, she would only owe capital gains taxes on the $50,000 difference between the home’s value when it was inherited and sold.
However, if you transferred ownership of the home to her while you were still living, your daughter would lose the step-up basis and face a capital gains tax bill of $220,000.
Capital gains tax is only one kind of tax that could be impacted by transferring your home during your lifetime. You may also destroy valuable property tax basis, which could cause a re-assessment of your home for property tax purposes, depending on the county or state your home is located in.
There are much better ways to avoid probate using estate planning, such as putting your home into a revocable living trust. Your home would immediately pass to your loved ones upon your death, without the need for any court intervention. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we can help you choose the most beneficial estate planning strategies to minimize your beneficiaries’ tax liability and ensure they get the most out of their inheritance while allowing them to avoid court and conflict.
3. Your Home Could Be Vulnerable To Debt, Divorce, Disability, & Death
There are several other reasons why transferring ownership of your house to your child is a bad idea. If your child takes ownership of your home and has significant debt, their creditors can make claims against the property to recoup what they’re owed, potentially forcing your child to sell the home to pay those debts.
Divorce is another potentially thorny issue. If your child goes through a divorce while the house is in their name, the home may be considered marital property. Depending on the outcome of the divorce, the settlement decree may force your child to sell the home or pay their ex-spouse a share of the home’s value.
The disability or death of your child can also lead to trouble. If your child becomes disabled and seeks Medicaid or other government benefits, having the home in their name could compromise their eligibility, just like it would your own. And if your child dies before you and owns the house, the property could be considered part of your child’s estate and end up being passed on to your child’s heirs, leaving you homeless.
There’s Simply No Substitute For Proper Estate Planning
Given these potential risks, transferring your homeownership to your adult child as a means of “poor man’s estate planning” is rarely a good idea. Instead, you should consult with us, your attorney, to find alternative solutions. We can help you find much better ways to qualify for Medicaid and other benefits to offset the hefty price tag of long-term care, and at the same time, we will keep your family out of court and conflict in the event of your death or incapacity.
As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we offer various estate planning packages at a variety of different price points as part of our Life & Legacy Planning Process. With our guidance and support, we will not only help you protect and pass on your home, but all of your family’s wealth and assets while also enabling you to afford better whatever long-term healthcare services you might require.
At Cheever Law, APC, we don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death for yourself and the people you love, which starts at a valuable and educational Family Wealth Planning Session. The Life & Legacy Planning Session will allow you to get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. If you have already completed your estate plan, we will review that plan at your Life & Legacy Planning Session (aka Family Wealth Planning Session) to ensure that it will work the way you intend and address any holes or gaps that may be present if circumstances have changed since you executed your plan.
To learn more about our one-of-a-kind systems and services, contact us or schedule a 15-minute introductory call today.