The way families are living day to day has changed dramatically over the past several months due to the pandemic.
Most families have one or more parents working remotely, and many have one or more children in school remotely, part-time if not all of the time. The situation has also made it challenging to spend time with parents and grandparents who live in different households.
As a result, some older adults are exploring or have already taken action to move in with their adult children and their families, or vice versa.
Before you take the leap, be aware of the various issues involved in moving in with family, especially if you are going to share property homeownership across multiple generations.
First, there are several considerations when thinking through the homeownership arrangement, either for a new home or to share the burden of an existing one.
If older parents are making a contribution to buying a home, determine how that will be treated.
The contribution may consider any of the following: (1) a gift; (2) a loan; (3) an advance on the adult children’s inheritance; or (4) a contribution to the home purchase to share an ownership interest in the property.
Make sure you have a plan in place in case any couple involved — either the older parents or their adult children — gets divorced. Define who will be able to live in the home, and how any shared ownership interest will be divided.
You will also need to make decisions based on whether the older parents have enough assets without the home itself to afford nursing home care. Otherwise, Medicaid could attempt to garnish their interest in the home to pay for that care.
Author(s)
Stuart J. Oberman, Esq.
Stuart J. Oberman is the founder and President of Oberman Law Firm. Mr. Oberman graduated from Urbana University and received his law degree from John Marshall Law School. Mr. Oberman has been practicing law for over 30 years, and before going into private practice, Mr. Oberman was in-house counsel for a Fortune 500 Company.
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