<p>If your parents and your brother insist on doing this JT after all the talks, you can stay out of the JT and let your parents and your brother co-sign a statement that in the event of inheritance, you will get $45K extra in lieu of being quarter JT in the house. Have it notarized, end of story.</p>
<p>I think what my dad has in mind is that if DB is JT with them and I am not, that the will will be changed so I get an additional cash payout from the will equivalent to 50% of the value of the house (appraised at the time of his/my mom’s death, whoever dies last). </p>
<p>This is going to be tough for DB. He is pretty tight with his money (sqeaks, to be precise). He will probably have to forego this JT idea because his wife won’t be willing to commit, and likely will end up with higher property taxes if they do end up in the house. Just trying to keep him from blaming me…</p>
<p>hmm … your parents intent seems great and idea seems pretty good … however there may be an even better way to achieve a similar result without the complications. Do they have the assets to become a joint tenant on the house with just your brother and at the same time set up an equal share of other assets with you as the joint tenant? This would allow your brother to have the house and eliminate the HUGE complication of your brother and you having to agree on when to sell the the house or being in conflict.</p>
<p>3togo, there is no issue regarding whether there would be enough assets in the estate to pay me for 1/2 the value of the house when my parents die. The problem is that my brother does not want to make a decision about whether he wants the house until after they are gone (so he can “ease” his wife into the decision), but he wants to get the benefit of the lower property taxes. He wants me to sign on in Joint Tenancy with him so if he decides to sell the house, I will will be sharing all the costs while the house is for sale (property taxes, insurance, repairs, cleaning before showing, etc.). The estate won’t pay them if he took the house in joint tenancy (rather than inherited it). </p>
<p>I am pretty sure that his plan won’t work for him or me due to capital gains issues, though. Both of us would be hit with capital gains taxes in his scenario if he decides to sell. I think he will either need to decide to go to JT himself and take the house for sure, or maybe wait on this issue and take his chances that we will have some warning before my last parent dies so he can decide closer to the time of their death if he wants the house. At that time, he could be made JT and the will could be modified to give me an extra amount equal to the 50% of the value of the house at the time of their death. But I don’t think he can wait until after to decide.</p>
<p>I told him he should take his wife and stay in the house for a couple of weeks next time my parents go on vacation. 
They wouldn’t mind, he can dog sit.</p>
<p>In OR there are specific longterm care considerations. We opted to keep mom,s assets in her name save for joint checking and a will.</p>
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OK, then if it were me I would be willing to pay some to avoid the possibility of a HUGE hassle over the joint ownership. How about estimating what these costs might be and agreeing to pay 50% of this estimate if the house is sold in a relatively short time frame (2 years?)? Or something similar … personally I would try to be creative to avoid joint ownership of the property.</p>
<p>My advice: Do not co-own property with a sibling if you don’t have to. My brother passed away and my mom is still living. When we sold “our” home, which my mom lived in, my brother’s portion of the proceeds went to his minor children, through his widow. That money was meant to be used to pay for my mother’s care. The remaining siblings gave up our portion for our mom’s care. My brother’s widow was not so generous.</p>
<p>We have a small country lot that my dad left intestate, half to my mom, and half to his children, so I do, involuntarily, co-own property with my siblings, and unfortunately, my late brother’s estate. Nothing will be done with it until my mom passes, but upon that, I am hoping someone buys everyone’s share out so it’s no longer co-owned. I pay the taxes on it every year so it remains in the family, but they’re only about 40 bucks a year.</p>
<p>Not exactly related to the value of a JT, but an idea to consider:
I have been through a few times, the “settling up” of an estate. I’ve heard the “I don’t want anything” or the “I just want the car” line. It may be well-intended when spoken, but my experience is that when the money/assets/sale of property starts adding up, suddenly everybody wants their share.</p>
<p>I’d also add gifts are taxed at a rate over a certain $ amount of gift, no tax under that. A parent theoretically could give offspring the sale of the house and then “forgive” Xdollars of the debt each yr until paid off. Assuming the giver and recipient live long enough.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d say, “thanks, but no.” Your parents could very well need all their assets to pay for their care from now until both pass away. If it happens that either or both of them need extended assistance as they get older, it will be good for them to have all their assets available to help provide appropriate care so you & your DB aren’t having to ante up for the care. It could easily be more than the value of their home AND any other assets they have.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a good idea for your parents to share ownership of anything. Say DB causes an accident. Mom and Dad’s house is going to be an asset available to satisfy a judgment. Is the tax savings enough to risk the loss of their home?</p>
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<p>umm… Yes but unlikely. You can buy umbrella policy to cover that. But then you have to add some premium to the liability on auto insurance to bring it to 250K/500K, from there the umbrella will cover another million. At least that was a quote from my insurance company. Every owner in the JT should have that and it will some what offset the tax savings. </p>
<p>You must sit down and figure out the tax benefits before do any thing, cause the home is only worth $180K, not $1 million, it seems a lot of work and risk to just try to avoid some property tax. And the cost of legal advice is going to be high also.</p>
<p>If there’s the slightest possibility a parent may outlive assets and become Medicaid-eligible for nursing home care at some point, there is a look-back period for distribution of assets, and in some states, this postpones when one can start getting Medicaid benefits. There is also asset recovery in some states for expenses paid by Medicaid after the last surviving parent passes.</p>
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<p>But there are other reasons, uninsurable ones, why it could be unwise for the parents to give away any ownership of their house. Suppose there’s a falling out between the parents and one of the children. Any owner who’s feeling adversarial toward the other owners can make life even more unpleasant. He could, for example, demand to be bought out for cash, and if there isn’t enough cash, he could bring a partition suit to force the sale of the house. He could die intestate, or worse, write a will that leaves his share of the house to his meth-addicted mistress. The parents would have no say over who gets the ownership share that used to be theirs.</p>
<p>^^^So true. As I indicated above, we were helpless as our brother’s share of the house went to his widow, and we watched her spend it all within a month. As I said, that money could have paid for my mother’s assisted living for a whole year. It makes me sick how she squandered it. My father is probably still rolling over in his grave. We thought we had dotted our i’s and crossed our t’s to protect the assets from the spouses, but when there are minor children involved, the court protects them first. No matter whether the money never gets to those children. And don’t think because your siblings children are grown, that you won’t have to worry about that. Your siblings can always start a second family.</p>