Mrs. Johnson had an estate plan in place. She planned a substantial portion of her estate for her ministry interests. The remainder was to be divided equally among her three children.
Mrs. Johnson read in a magazine about the importance of having someone in place to manage her property should she become incompetent. The article suggested one solution, to place a child’s name on property titles.
One of her children was a missionary in a foreign country. Another was a very busy doctor who lived some distance from her. She also had a daughter who lived on an adjoining farm, so she placed her name on the property as joint owner.
At Mrs. Johnson's death, all jointly owned property was distributed to her daughter with nothing going to her ministries or other children.
The hard lesson of Mrs. Johnson’s decision is that Joint ownership must always be coordinated with other estate documents or there is a possibility that your estate will not be distributed as you desire.
Mrs. Johnson could have addressed the issue of property management with a trust. Property can be managed by a chosen person (or people) should incompetence occur. The same person can make appropriate distributions at death.
How We Can Help
If a Mrs. Johnson-like problem concerns you, we would love to offer you a no-cost, no-obligation copy of our eBook, Your Estate Planning Guide. It contains a helpful inventory that is a first step in reviewing existing plan or creating new ones. You can download the guide by clicking the button at the bottom of this post.
Let us know if we can be of further service to you in this vital area of your stewardship.