Reply to Giving your married child a down payment, then divorce

Forum Index » Money and Finances

Reply to "Giving your married child a down payment, then divorce "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m a divorce lawyer. You’re very smart to consider this.  Under DC law, property acquired during the marriage by a gift to one party remains that party’s separate property so long as she can trace it out. That means you can’t say things like, “This is for both of you.”  You make it clear it is a gift to just your child. Your kid then doesn’t do anything to make it a gift to the marriage (ex. by writing a note “I know you’re uncomfortable with the fact that my parents gave US the down payment but this house is OURS). Keep good records bc if you die, you’re not around to say what your intentions was with the gift. [/quote]

Documenting the intention that the gift is for my child
is enough?

Thanks. [/quote]

Yes, it is about sourcing the $$. It has to have an explicit trail and documention. But why assume....it's work to figure it out in a divorce.  Get it in writing. [/quote]

The above responder is not me (the divorce lawyer), but is correct that you want an explicit trail showing the money can be directly traced from you to your daughter alone AND she keeps it separate until it is used. For example, don’t have her take a check from you and deposit it into a joint account and then have the same money wired to the bank at closing. Although she could still trace the money out, it’s much cleaner if, in addition to documenting that it’s a gift to just her, the money never hits a joint account. You also need to discuss with her what happens upon a sale. If she sells the property or refinances and pulls money out. Without something in writing with her husband, if it’s jointly titled, he’d end up with it all.

Look into filing a gift tax return, which, along with contemporaneous notes between you and your daughter,  can confirm the gift was just to her. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics