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

Attys. Chris Merrill: Should you add your spouse's name to the deed to your home?

Attys. Tom Olsen: Chrisy, that's a question that in my 40 years of law practice I've gotten many many times. It's something that's got to be handled delicately. Sometimes I'm asking people questions and they probably don't know why I'm asking people those questions, and my first question to that person that asked me this question would be, "How long have you been married?" If they say you, "I've been married a year," that's one thing, if they say, "I've been married for 30 years," that's another thing.

If they tell me that they've been married for just a year, I will try in a gentle way, trying to persuade them to let that marriage season a little bit before they consider adding their spouse's name to the deed, because in the State of Florida if you get divorced, generally you leave whatever assets that you brought into the marriage, but if you after a one-year marriage add your spouse's name to the deed and you get divorced, he or she's going to leave with one half that house because you deeded it into their name. That's my general rule of thumb with people. I think generally they get it.

Sometimes, let's say that the wife calls me and says, "Tom, I really want my husband-- the home is in my husband's name only." I actually don't know how to say this. The husband calls me and says, "Tom my wife really wants me to add her name to the deed to our home, we've only been married for a year." I said, "Look let your marriage season a little bit." He goes, "Well, gosh, what I'm going to tell her?" I say do this, "Do a will where in that will you leave the home to your wife. I'll do that will for you. Show her a copy of that will and that's going to make her feel better. Then a few years down the road, things still going smoothly, then consider adding her name to the deed." Simply doing your will accomplishes the same thing, but it gives them options of going forward. Does that make sense?

Attys. Chris: Yes.

Attys. Tom: Like that?

Attys. Chris: Oh yes.

Attys. Tom: Because there's always a feel-good factor too. I can understand why if the house is in just one spouse's name, I can understand there's a feel-good factor on both ends by adding that other spouse's name to the deed. If we can't add the spouse's name to the deed, then simply doing a will is going to you give us that feel-good factor.

By the way, sometimes a married couple come to me and they've been married for 30 years and they bought their house 30years, and for one reason or another, the house ended up in just his name or just her name. Why? Because on the day of the closing, only one of them was available to sign paperwork. It got put into one spouse's name at the very beginning, not for any good reason, it just happened to be that way, and absolutely, positively, that'd be a time that you want to add your spouse's name to the deed with a long-term marriage like that.