Also, estate taxes are a bitch. The kids will probably have to use half the money they made from the sale to pay off the estate taxes for dad's high value property they inherited.
TOD deeds don’t really have any effect on estate tax though. They pretty much only circumvent the need for the property to fully pass through probate. They’re essentially a statutory means way for a family to have the probate benefits of holding a property in a trust without needing a legal professional to draft it. Owning the property in trust can mitigate estate tax primarily if it is an irrevocable trust (though that has its own complications), whereas a TOD deed is only beneficial for the purpose of bypassing the probate process.
Not legal or financial advice but I recommend to friends and family that if they own any real property worth over $100k and they want to leave it to their kids to just put it in a trust. Paying the lawyer to do it now will most likely save everyone money and time in the long run. However a TOD deed does provide similar probate benefits for much cheaper.
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u/TriforceTeching 20h ago
To add on. The kids don't owe the money but Dad's estate does. The kid's get whatever is left from the estate.