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How can my mom, age 90, get an irrevocable trust on her house for as little money as possible. She needs the house out of her name to qualify for veterans benefits as my dad was in World War II.
Optional Information: Country relating to Question: United States State (if USA): Ohio Already Tried: I contacted a US Senior Vets person who will help fill out the papers and direct us on what documentation is needed for free. Five minutes after our conversation her lawyer boss calls me to advise the house needs to be our of her name or she won't qualify for VA benefits. He then proceeds to tell me it will cost me $2500 to have this done. That seems very high to me for filling out a form already on his computer. This does not include the filing fees and or any "extras" he deems necessary.
Here is a sample Irrevocable Trust format for a simple irrevocable trust. However, besides the trust a quit claim deed must be signed from your mother to the trust and that must be recorded with the recorder of property records. Also, you need to get a tax id for the trust, as it is a separate entity and that is the tax number that will be used by the tax assessor for filing your taxes on the property in the trust. Actually, you can call around to elder law or trust and estates attorneys and for a simple irrevocable trust you can expect to pay at the minimum $1000-$1800 depending on the attorney and you can negotiate with them. Also check with the local senior citizen center as they sometimes have attorneys who work with seniors for low cost or free and check with legal aid and also the state bar for pro bono attorneys in the area if she does not have the funds to pay to have this done.
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I failed to mention that Mom has absolutely no assets. She only receives $1243 a month from Social Security. She has $1900 in the bank from cashing in her stock, but she owes more than that in medical bills from the nursing home and rehab.
My sister and I are doing all we can to sell her old furniture for a decent price, but that's not going to bring much. Somehow we have to make up the difference of the $1900 a month rent for assisted living, plus her phone, medical insurance premiums, and prescriptions with only $1243 from Social Security. It will take about 9 months to receive her $1100 a month benefit from the VA. There is just no way to come up with $1000 to $2500+ for an irrevocable trust on the house. She lived there less than 5 years, built it new for a cost or $160,000. She took a reverse mortgage about six months after buying the house. It is now worth about $130,000, and Wells Fargo shows an outstanding balance of $151,000+.
Before I contacted you, I called the Columbus, OH Bar Association. They said no lawyers do irrevocable trusts pro bono. I called Legal Aid as well, but have to call back tomorrow as they leave at 3:30. From reading the description of the types of free legal aid they give, this does not appear to be one of them.
I've worked for PNC Bank for over 14 years. I'm a notary for the bank. I know the trust needs a separate tax ID number and I've taken things to the court house to be filed before.
I'm sorry, but I feel I've just wasted $43. Your suggestion to call different lawyers for prices and negotiate with them is something I was trying to avoid. Is there any other advice you can offer so I won't feel I've just wasted more of Mom's money? I'm not trying to be mean, I just need to get this done quickly, without hassels, run-arounds, and a waste of my time and Mom's money. I'm well aware there is a good chance she could die before the VA benefit even comes thru. In that case we wouldn't get a penny and would be out any money we could manage to scrape up.
I am sorry, Ms. Marsha, I did not mean to offend you by suggesting you could not do it, but it is just that so many of our customers are not familiar with all of the processes you described above. If you are capable, I gave you a sample irrevocable trust that you can use as a template for your mom's irrevocable trust. If all you are needing to do is draft it to move the house under it, then you have the document from me to do so on your own as long as you are familiar with the filing process and obtaining the tax ID.
PaulMJD,
You did not offend me. I just can't believe it costs so much for paperwork. I would be willing to do the legwork, but I guess that's why lawyers have paralegals. I'm no better off than before, when I asked you the question "How can my mom, age 90, get an irrevocable trust on her house for as little money as possible?"
The only information I got from you that I didn't already know is it costs a minimum of $1000 -$1800 depending on the attorney. I will never use this service again. I have about 10 attorneys I know thru the bank. In the future I will ask them their opinion and save my money.
I gave you the form above if you click on the link and you can use that to do this yourself if you are comfortable in doing so to save some money. If you were not able to open the link let me know. I am sorry about the costs of paperwork, but attorneys charge anywhere from $150-$350 per hour for this type of work I don't have an answer for you as to why other than those are the average rates. Please let me know if you could not open the sample trust document I sent you above as that is the sample of what you need to write up your own irrevocable trust and then do your quit claim (which you get from the recorder of land records as they generally have blank forms) and assign the house to the trust and get your tax ID for the trust and file the quit claim and copy of the trust document and tax ID with the recorder of land records.
I was able to open the link you sent me and saved and printed it. Thanks for all the pertinent information in this last answer.
You are welcome. I would appreciate you leaving good service feedback.