In many cases, clients own their home in their own Revocable Living Trust. If clients are in a federally taxable estate, a house or vacation home may be put into a Qualified Person Residence Trust (QPRT.)

Revocable Living Trust

The four main goals of putting your house in a Revocable Living Trust are:

To avoid probate.
To provide authorization for your successor trustees to manage all aspects of your home.
To pass your home into an asset protection trust for your spouse and children.
To ensure that you use your federal estate tax exemption.

Your estate planning attorney will design and draft your Revocable Living Trust to your individual specifications; he or she will also draft and record the deed, transferring your home into your trust.

Qualified Personal Residence Trust

There is one main goal and a side benefit to QPRTs.

To exclude your home and/or vacation home from federal estate taxes.
To pass your home into an asset protection trust for your spouse and children.

Your estate planning attorney will design and draft your QPRT to your individual specifications; he or she will also draft and record the deed, transferring your home into your trust.

While no appraisal or gift tax return in required for a transfer to a Revocable Living Trust, you must complete both for a QPRT.

At the end of the QPRT term, your house will be transferred, by way of a deed, from the trust into the names of individual beneficiaries or into trusts for those beneficiaries.

If you own a house, consult with a qualified estate planning attorney to determine whether your house should be in a trust.