As I work to do more for my clients and potential clients, this subject recently came up. Consider me a resource and guide you can reach out to anytime.
As I work to do more for my clients and potential clients, this subject recently came up.
Consider me a resource and guide you can reach out to anytime.
Many of my clients, especially higher net worth and more experienced homeowners, have taken the smart step of putting their home into a trust. I’m also seeing more first‑time trust users do the same on the advice of their attorneys. One important detail often gets overlooked in the process: updating your homeowners insurance.
When you deed a property into a trust, the trust becomes the legal owner of the home. If your insurance policy still only lists you as an individual, there can be a gap between who owns the home on title and who is named on the policy. In some situations, this mismatch can give an insurance company a reason to limit or even deny a claim, or at least delay payment while everything gets sorted out.
Who want's a potential problem when you can correct it before there is one!
The good news is that this is usually easy to fix. In many cases, your insurance carrier can add your trust as an additional insured or additional named insured by endorsement, often at little or no extra cost. The key is that both you (as the person living in the home) and your trust (as the legal owner) are clearly covered on the policy.
Here are a few simple steps you may want to consider:
Check how title is currently held on your property (your name vs. your revocable/living trust).
Look at your homeowners policy to see exactly how the “named insured” is listed.
If your home is in a trust but the trust is not listed on the policy, contact your insurance agent or carrier and ask about adding the trust as an additional insured or additional named insured.
If you have an umbrella policy, confirm that it also aligns with how your assets are titled.
This isn’t legal or tax advice, and every situation is different, but I’m seeing this come up more often as more clients use trusts for estate planning and asset protection. My role is to help you protect your real estate as completely as possible, and that includes flagging potential issues like this so you can address them proactively with your attorney and insurance professional.
If you’d like, I’m happy to:
Review how your property is currently vested on your recorded deed.
Suggest to you with specific questions to ask your insurance provider to make sure your coverage matches your estate plan.
Feel free to call, text, or email me if you’d like to discuss this or have me connect you with local professionals who can help. In my network I have a full list of professionals for any need. That is the concierge service, you should expect.
Best regards,
Roger Price Owens
REALTOR® S.0179116.LLC
Real Broker, LLC
Call or Text me 702-985-6625
Prefer email roger@roger.realtor
Categories
Recent Posts
