Moonlight Ballroom Blog

Transferring property to your children to avoid probate can cause big problems if a child files bankruptcy or is otherwise unable to pay his debts. Many times the parent’s reasoning is that since Junior is going to end up with the house anyway, let’s make it easy on Junior and put his name on the home right now as a joint owner.  That way, when the parent dies, the house will be owned by Junior by operation of law, without the need for lengthy and expensive probate proceedings. Because the child has a legal interest in the home, that interest will have to be disclosed in the bankruptcy filing paperwork.