Should you add your children's names to the deed to your home?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Grace, you're on 96.9 The Game. Go ahead.

Grace: Hello.

Tom: You're on the air, Grace.

Grace: My name is Grace and I need to prepare a deed to add my children to the house, my husband passed. I'd like to have the children in and they’re adults and there's no mortgage and it's just to prepare a deed.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Okay, Grace. We're going to put you down. If you continue to listen, we'd appreciate that. Grace, we assume that you're trying to avoid probate on your home so that if you passed away, your home would automatically go to your children, no probate required. For that Grace, we recommend what's called a Lady Bird Deed. It's a deed that we would prepare. It would state that as long as you're alive, it is your home to do it as you please. No restrictions whatsoever that upon your death, your home would automatically go to your children. No headaches, no hassles, no probate.

Now, Grace, what you’re proposing is, is that while you're alive, you would add your children's names to the deed. We do not recommend that you do that because if your kids got sued, their creditors would be coming after your home because their name is on your deed. That's not good. Number two, you lose control of it. You would not be able to sell it or refinance it or change who gets it when you pass away if you add their names to the deed. Again, don't do that. Do do a Lady Bird Deed, it avoids those issues.

You maintain complete control. Grace, if we did a Lady Bird Deed for you today where you left it to your three kids and six months from now, you want to sell that property or six months from now, you want to change it to just two of your kids, you're going to be allowed to do so without your children's knowledge, signature, and consent. That's a Lady Bird Deed also known as an Enhanced Life Estate Deed. Christy, we have booklets for people if they'd like to get one.

Attorney Tom Olsen: We do. Grace, we would love to send you a booklet if you're interested. You can either call Holly right now at 407-423-5561. Give her your name and your mailing address and we will get that right out to you, or you can go to olsenlawgroup.com O-L-S-E-N lawgroup.com and right there on the homepage, you can select that Lady Bird Deed booklet and same thing. Just put in your name and your mailing address and we will get that out to you.