What happens to my house

[Anonymous]

I am an unmarried single mom by choice. I own my house but it still has a mortgage on it. It's worth about $1m and I owe $500k. My boyfriend lives with us but he is not the father of the children.

I want to make provisions for the house in case I die. The kids will go to my brother and they are the beneficiaries of my insurance policies. But how do I set it up so that they inherit the house? They are 5 and 2. My brother lives in VT so they would move to him. I would like for the house to be sold and the proceeds to go to the kids. I have a will and they inherit everything 50/50. Do I just add the house to the will?

[Anonymous]

The will should say something to the effect that all your assets transfer to your kids and you should have assigned an executor. Even without, the assets pass to your kids.

The executor gets to make the decisions regarding the assets and he/she could choose to not sell the house. You can ask that it be done but it doesn't mean they will do it.

[Anonymous]

As PP said, the will shouldn't name specific assets - just that the assets go to your children. You may want to think about things like, will you have more children? What happens if you get married? What happens if you die and the kids are teenagers (who controls the funds - you don't want to give them $ millions).

[Anonymous]

You really need to see a lawyer. Minors cannot convey real estate, so if your request is for it to be liquidated, I'm sure you need to do some sort of trust with trustee who will abide by your wishes.

[Anonymous]

Get a revocable trust. Transfer title of the house to the trust. You should also make the trust the beneficiaries of your insurance policies. This way, you avoid probate, and all your assets transfer. You would need to decide who the trustee should be after you if your kids are still minors. What's good about this setup is that the person in charge of the money doesn't have to be the guardian of the children.

[Anonymous]

Yes, a trust. We had a will, but when our children were born we set up a revocable trust. Our house and land we own has been transferred to the trust; we still need to transfer all our investments and other accounts. My brother, who would get the kids, is the trustee. Some may argue against this, but I chose this route because I fully trust my brother. He is a lawyer so he understands everything and he is not in need of my money. We also set our 529s up so that my brother would become the owner if something were to happen to both my H and me. Get with a good lawyer and they can walk you through the process.

[Anonymous]

You need a trust. You can't leave assets to a minor.
Debby Cochran in Tyson's is a great attorney for this. She will draw up a will, trust, guardianships, etc.