Should you add your spouse's name to the deed to your home?

Should you add your spouse's name to the deed to your home?

Attorney Chris Merrill: This text is saying that, "I, husband, have a home, and my wife and I live there together, but the home is in my name only."

Attorney Tom Olsen: He wants to know if he should add his wife's name to the deed?

Attorney Chris Merrill: Yes.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Okay. Well, what the texter doesn't tell us is how long they've been married, but let's assume that they've been married for a long, long time. Yes, it would be typical that most married couples own everything jointly, including the home that they live in. If for some reason the home is in the husband's name only, it would be appropriate to add the wife's name to the deed.

Now, the good news is that normally, when you add your spouse's name to a deed, you have to pay the State of Florida doc stamps, documentary stamp tax, for the privilege of doing so. When it's a home you live in, your homestead, you don't have to pay doc stamps. It's a relatively inexpensive process to add your spouse's name to the deed to your home. Now, if that texter said, "Hey, Tom, I've been married for six months, should I add my wife's name to this property I've owned forever and ever?" I would say, "Hey, let your marriage season a little while before you add the name to the deed." Right?

Attorney Chris Merrill: Exactly.

Attorney Tom Olsen: The reason I say that is because if you have a relatively short-term marriage and you get divorced, what you brought into the marriage, you're going to leave with it. What she brought into the marriage, she's going to leave with it, but if you were to add the wife's name to the deed to the home at that moment in time and you get divorced, guess what? She's getting one half so think about it.