Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Nevada

Re: Home purchase jointly held title; husband name only on loan

The family trust will avoid probate and if the Obama administration does not move to extend the unified credit in 2010, it will go back to $625,000. Thus, if you have an estate between $625,000 and $1,250,000, you will lose a very big tax benefit. You would have to pay a 55% inheritance tax on value between those numbers. By the way, if you take real property by an inheritance, you will not have to pay any tax on your husband's portion. Easy to explain in person but hard in a small email.

You will never be liable on the loan, thus cannot be sued for a default; but, if you stop making payments, you will be foreclosed.

As you will be on title, that is how your investment is protected. If you are joint tenant, you get the whole ownership if your husband were to pass away. If you are fearful that someone might try to collect on a judgment against your husband and not you, you should take title as John Doe and Jane Doe, husband and wife, as community property. Taking title that way prevents either of you from selling it without the other's permission, and this would include a creditor trying to collect.

If you would like to meet to discuss this, please email me.

Re: Home purchase jointly held title; husband name only on loan

1) The advantage of holding the title as joint tenants is that if your husband dies, you automatically own it all. (Typically you file and affidavit of death of joint tenant along with his death certificate to clean up the title.)

2) Federal estate tax law is always changing, but right now, you wouldn't have to worry about federal estate tax.

3) The purpose of a trust would be to protect non-grantor beneficiaries from their creditors with respect to their ultimate inheritance and to avoid probate after both of you die.

4) All income earned during the marriage (other than from investments held as separate property) is community property.

5) If your husband pays on the loan with earned income he pays with community property. Therefore, your interest is protected.

6) It is a common misconception that in a community property state such as Nevada that husband and wife can keep separate bank accounts, etc., and have separated their money and each can automatically legally walk with his or her earned savings if they divorce.

Re: Home purchase jointly held title; husband name only on loan

This is a community property state and not a title state. You both will own the home and be responsible for the debt. Your relationship with the lenders is irrelevant to the laws of community property. Nevada has no inheritance tax. A living trust is a good idea but, again, this is for avoiding probate, it does not change the community property nature of the home and loan.