Beneficiary Deeds: The One Document Everyone Needs!

In another blog post, I mentioned how much I love to use beneficiary deeds — if you’re only going to do one piece of estate planning, please, let this be it! It’s the cheapest, most efficient way to cover the most important asset that most folks have: their home. In Arkansas, beneficiary deeds facilitate the easiest transfer of assets to heirs after the death of the owner. It also protects the deeded property, usually the family house and the land it sits on, from Medicaid estate recovery.

With beneficiary deeds, you retain full ownership and control until your death, and can change your mind about who you want to receive the property, refinance, and/or sell the property in the beneficiary deed if you wish. Doing a beneficiary deed instead of a regular quitclaim deed or warranty deed means that your beneficiaries will receive the property later after you pass rather than now, which could potentially save your family tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital gains taxes whenever the property is eventually sold.

Beneficiary deeds can be created for houses, land, and mineral rights. Separate deeds will be needed for separate properties, but directly adjoining properties can be put on the same beneficiary deed.

Do note, beneficiary deeds MUST be notarized and signed by the property owner who is giving the property to their chosen beneficiaries and recorded in the local county clerk’s office BEFORE the property owner dies to be legally valid. I always advise my clients to go straight to the county courthouse right after finalizing the documents with me — they can notarize your documents for you too, as long as you bring an ID.

Give my office a call or email me to talk more about how a beneficiary deed can help set up your legacy and protect you and your family’s most important assets.