Joint Owner

2 Jul 2025 · 0 min

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0:28

In this brief estate‑planning advisory, the speaker cautions homeowners against naming their child as a joint owner on a property deed to sidestep probate. He recounts a client whose child’s divorce led a court to treat the child’s half‑interest in the home as marital property, threatening the family’s residence. The speaker explains that the safer approach is to place the house in a revocable living trust and name the child as the trust’s beneficiary, preserving control while still avoiding probate.

If you're considering putting your child's name on your deed, making your child joint owner of your home so that they can avoid probate when you die. A man came to see me who had done exactly that. This man's child gets involved in a nasty divorce. Guess what the divorce court is trying to decide? How to split up the son's half ownership in my client's home. The way to have done this would have been to put the house into a trust and make the son the beneficiary of that trust.