Should I Put My House in a Trust in Virginia?

Estate planning involves creating a plan to allow your money, property, and other assets to be transferred to your loved ones and other beneficiaries in the most efficient manner possible after you pass away. The two most common estate planning documents used for this purpose are:

1. A Will; and
2. A Revocable Living Trust

Both a Will and a revocable living trust allow you to specify who should receive your assets after you pass away. But, with a Will, your assets will need to go through the probate process before your heirs and loved ones can inherit them.

The probate process can be expensive, eating up a sizable portion of your estate. What’s more, probate can take months, and even years if your Will is contested.

A trust, on the other hand, avoids probate. This can allow your heirs and loved ones to receive your money, property, and other assets in weeks or months after you pass away, rather than the months or possibly years it might take through probate.

Why Put Your House in a Trust in Virginia?

There are two primary reasons why homeowners choose to put their houses in a trust:

1. Probate avoidance; and
2. Incapacity planning

If you want your heirs and loved ones to inherit your home without the time, stress, and expense of probate, you should consider putting it in a trust that you own. In this way, your home can be transferred to your heirs and loved ones privately and shortly after you pass away.

That said, proper estate planning not only deals with what happens to your assets after you pass away, but it also deals with what happens when you become incapacitated during your lifetime, and unable to communicate or handle your own affairs.

A living trust allows you to name a successor trustee, who will step in and manage the trust assets when you (the original trustee) are unable to do so, due to injury, illness, or other circumstances. Your successor trustee will be responsible for managing the assets in the trust while you are alive, and then distributing those assets to the trust beneficiaries after you pass away.

If you want to ensure that your money, home, and other assets will be managed by someone you trust in the event you become incapacitated for any length of time, then you may want to consider placing those assets in a living trust that you create, and then designating a trusted individual (your spouse, your lawyer, a trusted family member, etc.) as your successor trustee.

Should You Put Your House in a Trust?

In most cases, the answer to this question is yes. A trust allows you much more control over the distribution of your assets than a Will does. If you put your house in a revocable living trust, you will retain full control over it. You will still be able to live in it, sell it, rent it, or give it away. The same rights you enjoy now.

On the other hand, if you want to protect your home from being lost to lawsuits, creditors, Medicaid spend-down, and other threats, you can choose to put your house in an irrevocable trust. Placing your house in an irrevocable trust will effectively remove it from your estate.

In other words, you will no longer own the house from a legal standpoint. Instead, the house will be owned by the irrevocable trust itself, and you will have limited control over it. However, because you no longer own or have control of the house, it cannot be attached to pay off your debts, used to satisfy judgments against you, or count against you when applying for Medicaid.

Consult with an Experienced Virginia Estate Planning Lawyer

For more information about putting a house in a trust in Virginia, or for help with setting up a trust in Virginia, call our law firm today at (703) 553-2577 or use the contact form. We offer a free consultation with a knowledgeable and experienced Virginia estate planning lawyer.

The information on this site is for general informational purposes only. The information presented in this site is not legal advice or a legal opinion. You should seek the advice of legal counsel of your choice before acting upon any of the information in this site.