Should Parents Transfer Their Home to Their Son?

Q Son put $150,000 of renovations into home of his parents . Home is now valued at $875,000. A year ago, parents changed the deed to the house so it's owned by the parents and the son jointly with rights of survivorship. How would Medi-Cal handle this? Wouldn't it make sense to transfer outright to son now to start five-year look back?

A

Perhaps, but everyone may be better off using a trust. As you suggest, a transfer of the home to the son will cause five years of ineligibility for Medi-Cal benefits for both parents. Depending on their health and other resources, this may or may not be a risk they should take. A transfer outright to the son has several drawbacks, including the following: The house would then be subject to any claim should the son be sued or divorced or pass away. In addition, when the son sold the house he would have to pay tax on the capital gains which would be determined based on the difference between the parents' purchase price, plus the value of improvements to property, and the son's selling price. These risks can be prevented by transferring the house to a properly-drafted irrevocable trust. The trust would protect the house for the parents (and the son and his family as well) and bring the son a "step-up" in basis upon the parents' death, reducing or eliminating any tax on capital gain. These issues are complicated and the right answer depends on everyone's circumstances. These decisions must be made with the assistance of a qualified elder law attorney.

Trusts and SSI

The contents of most trusts you create for yourself will be considered available to you in determining your eligibility for SSI. On the other hand, assets of most trusts that someone else creates and names you as a beneficiary of will not be considered to belong to you for purposes of determining your SSI eligibility. If you created and funded an irrevocable trust for your own benefit prior to January 1, 2000, it will be grandfathered, and in most cases its assets will not be considered to belong to you.

Trusts designed to aid a person with special needs are commonly known as "special needs trusts." There are three main types of special needs trusts: the first-party trust, the third-party trust, and the pooled trust. All three name the person with special needs as the beneficiary, but they differ in several significant ways.

Guides To Help Those Appointed to Manage Someone Else's Money

Have you been officially asked to manage someone else's money? For example, have you been named as an agent under a power of attorney or appointed trustee of a trust? As our society ages, more and more people are being asked to take on these roles, but they come with both powers and responsibilities, and problems can arise.

If you're not a lawyer (and even if you are), the responsibilities of these positions can seem daunting. Luckily, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – the only federal office dedicated to the financial health of Americans age 62 and over -- has released four guides for people who have been given the responsibility of managing money or property for someone else. The guides, which are free, are collectively called “Managing Someone Else's Money.”

Consider Putting Gifts to Grandchildren in a Trust

Gifting assets to your grandchildren isn't just a nice thing to do; it can reduce the size of your estate and the tax that will be due upon your death. Grandparents can give their grandchildren up to $15,000 a year (in 2018) without having to report the gifts. While you can make an outright gift, pay health care and school costs directly, or put the money in a custodial account, putting the money into a trust has some major advantages.

With the help of an attorney, you can draft a trust that reflects your express wishes about when the income and principal will be available to the grandchild, and even how the funds will be spent. Transferring funds into such a trust offers the following benefits:

You can reduce the size of your estate by transferring up to $15, 000 (in 2018) into each trust you create for each grandchild. No gift taxes will be due in connection with the transfers.

Although the trust owns the assets, you control them as trustee and can decide what type of investments to make.
Income earned by the trust from amounts that you've deposited will not be taxed to you; the trust pays the taxes.
Amounts deposited in trust, and the income earned from those funds, will be used for the benefit of your grandchildren.

You can provide that the trust terminate at any age you specify.

In order to qualify for these benefits, however, certain restrictions apply. These trusts are complex legal documents and should not be set up without the help of an experienced attorney. As a result, the chief downside of such trusts is the cost of establishing and maintaining them, which you should discuss with an attorney before going ahead with a trust.

Gifts to Grandchildren: What Do UGMA and UTMA Have to Do With Grandma?

The Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) and the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) are sometimes called the “granddaddies” of college savings accounts. Both allow parents to establish custodial accounts for a minor child, and a grandparent can then make gifts to the account. Because the account is in the name of the child, the tax liability is often shifted to the child, who presumably is in a lower tax bracket than the grandparent or the grandchild's parents. Gifts to such accounts are irrevocable, but the gift-giver retains control of the money and decides how it will be invested.

UGMA and UTMA differ in the type of property they permit a person to transfer: States usually restrict UGMA investments to life insurance, cash and certificates of deposit, while UTMA allows a wider variety of investments, including mutual funds, stocks, bonds, real estate -- even artwork. Banking institutions and brokerage firms offer UGMA and UTMA accounts.

Estate Planning and Retirement Considerations for Late-in-Life Parents

Older parents are becoming more common, driven in part by changing cultural mores and surrogate motherhood. Comedian and author Steve Martin had his first child at age 67. Singer Billy Joel just welcomed his third daughter. Janet Jackson had a child at age 50. But later-in-life parents have some special estate planning and retirement considerations.

The first consideration is to make sure you have an estate plan and that the estate plan is up to date. One of the most important functions of an estate plan is to name a guardian for your children in your will, and this goes double for a parent having children late in life. If you don't name someone to act as guardian, the court will choose the guardian. Because the court doesn't know your kids like you do, the person they choose may not be ideal.