Purchasing a home is a major achievement, especially for first-time homeowners. Those who have just acquired real property deserve congratulations! It takes advance planning and real commitment to navigate the current real estate market.
This potentially beneficial financial decision could have a positive impact on someone’s personal wealth and standard of living for decades to come. However, it is important to acknowledge all of the responsibility that comes with owning a home. Someone who has recently acquired real property may need to consider what may happen to that home in the future. Specifically, they may need to create an estate plan if they have not already done so.
Why estate planning matters
It is very easy to procrastinate when considering estate planning. Many Texas adults never get around to drafting a will and other estate planning paperwork. Then, their families may end up scrambling to handle matters after their death. Disputes about what should happen with their resources could potentially cause major damage to the relationships among their surviving loved ones.
Estate planning after someone acquires a home helps ensure that an asset that represents years of commitment and hard work passes to the right party. The testator drafting the estate plan can also address their other valuable resources. They can choose who should inherit the home and even make arrangements to pass their furnishings and other resources to specific beneficiaries.
Sometimes, someone with a blended family might decide to create a trust so that their spouse can continue living in the home until they die or remarry, but their children ultimately inherit the home. Other times, testators may buy additional life insurance so that their loved ones can pay off the mortgage still owed on the property if anything were to happen to them.
Estate planning after acquiring a home helps to ensure that this valuable resource remains in someone’s family and that the person purchasing the home has control over their legacy after their death. Alternatively, someone who already has an estate plan on record needs to update their documents to reflect their new status as a Texas homeowner. At the end of the day, addressing real property in an estate plan is crucial for the proper descent of the property after someone’s death.