Best Way to Protect Assets while minimizing taxes and probate

[Kev Cooper]

Hello,

New to the forums, just started reading articles and listening to the podcasts. Just listened to the one about planning for death a couple weeks ago and then yesterday my father calls me to get my opinion on a question he had.

My parents are getting close 70 years in age and own 1 house under my mothers name, my father is a doctor so just in case he gets sued is not on the title. My dad is an obgyn so parents/kids can open lawsuits till they are 21 years in age so even if he retires now any kid/parent has 21 years to sue him. Thankfully in all his years he has only been sued once and he was not found responsible so the chances of him being sued are less than 5% but its better to be safe than sorry.

His question is god forbid something happens to my mother, the estate would go into probate and then they decide to do with the house, they can decide to sell it and etc and it takes forever. Plus they no longer need such a large house and if they sold it they can make a profit of about 750k. He consulted a lawyer and if they are both on the title they don't get taxed for the first 500k of profit, if its just my mom they just save half but then god forbid a lawsuit happens its not protected.

In a trust it seems like its protected but there is no tax savings if they sell the house, in a revocable trust they have the tax savings, and probate risk is removed but its not shielded from a lawsuit.

Is there anything to minimize all 3 problems of taxation, lawsuits, and probate?

Thanks ahead of time for any recommendations.

[Kev Cooper]

Originally posted by @Daniel McNulty:

@Kev Cooper

A Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT) is your best bet from a legal structuring standpoint. It would depend on the size of the estate how exactly it should be setup though.

Alternatively, just buy a lot more malpractice insurance and cross your fingers nothing too crazy happens.

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the suggestion, house is probably around $2-2.5million, not sure what other assets the parents have. Looks like they still get the 500k credit in a qprt so this could be a great option. Will look into what kind of structuring options are available for assets 2 million+.

Much appreciated.