If you would like to leave your home to a loved one after you pass away, one of the options you have is adding your home to your estate plan and placing it into a trust. There are two main kinds of trusts that you can use to pass on your home, a revocable trust and a qualified personal residence trust.
With either trust option, you can pass on your home while still remaining in it during your lifetime (or the majority of it). Here’s more on each one.
Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRT) can work
To start with, it’s possible to use a qualified personal residence trust, or QPRT to move your home out of your estate. This transfers the home immediately, but you may remain in your home for the full QPRT term. The trust ends after the home is transferred to the beneficiary and the owner no longer has the right to stay in the home. Usually, this can be set up to end prior to the owner’s death, so that taxes are reduced. If the owner dies before the trust ends, there is a potential for the home’s value to be included in their estate.
Revocable trusts are another possibility
Revocable trusts are another option. These allow the owner to stay in the home until they pass away. At death, the property passes on to the beneficiary without having to go through probate. If you have multiple homes across several states, this will prevent your family from having to go through probate in different locations.
While estate planning, consider all the available options that can help you meet your goals. There may be an excellent option for passing on your residence to your loved ones.