Lootman wrote:A Will really only matters if Probate is needed. Someone who cannot be persuaded to make a Will might be persuaded to take steps to ensure that no Probate is needed. This could involve the transfer of assets and accounts to her children, or setting up her assets so that they jointly owned with her children. In both such cases there would then be no Estate to administer. The assets would automatically transfer to her children upon her death, and there may no more work to do, especially if no IHT was due.
Easier to pull off if she doesn't own a property.
As a general point the biggest danger of transferring assets to your child is that you may need them in later life to pay for care. Unfortunately, whilst one would like to think that one's grateful children would reciprocate by paying for that care this is very often not the case. Even if they are inclined to do so (and many aren't) they may well have spent the money.
Also, whilst this sort of scheme may sound superficially attractive it's actually extremely hazardous where the transfer of a house is concerned, and the dangers and potential costs of undertaking such an exercise can far outweigh the minor disadvantages of having to obtain probate.
The three biggest risks of transferring a house to one's children are known as the three D's - death, divorce and debt.
If you give your house to your child they may suddenly die without having made a Will. In that case you may find that `your' house is now owned by your child's spouse or child, who may decide they'd like to cash in and turf you out.
Or your child may find themselves being divorced, so that you end up in a house owned by your child's ex-spouse, who may also decide that you are no longer welcome to live there.
The third risk is that your child becomes insolvent. Although this may sound unlikely, over 100,000 people a year in the UK are formally declared insolvent. If your child is made bankrupt `your' home will be an asset in the bankruptcy. The trustee in bankruptcy is legally obliged to force a sale in order to raise money for your child's creditors, potentially leaving you out on the streets.
These situations can arise whether you have transferred the property outright or whether you have transferred it into joint ownership.
And they are not just theoretical. I have personally dealt with situations where each of these scenarios actually happened. In each case the parties involved had dealt with the transfer themselves with the help of the Land Registry. Unfortunately, the LR, whilst helping people to deal with conveyancing, do not and are not qualified to provide advice with regard to the ramifications of that conveyancing.
It's another irony, rather like people making their own Wills, that lawyers make far more money from the results of their doing so than from actually doing the Will making / conveyancing in the first place!