Garn-St. Germaine Act protects families against certain mortgage acceleration
Home mortgages typically have a mortgage acceleration clause, called a “due on sale” clause. This is a clause that says that the mortgage becomes due and payable if the property is sold or transferred to another individual without the lender’s prior written consent. There is a federal law that prevents lenders from applying that clause when the homeowner transfers their...
Protecting your family’s inheritance from their creditors
Perhaps you’ve heard friends talking about a “legacy trust” or a “family trust ” or a “bloodline trust.” These are all names for the same basic concept. You may be at a point in your life that you feel that you do not need to retain the ownership of all of your assets because you feel that you really “have enough.” You feel that you want...
Medicaid penalty imposed when life tenant received no proceeds of the home sale
A “life estate” in property is an interest that has a quantifiable value. If ownership of property can be thought of as giving the owner a “bundle of rights,” the life estate is a partial ownership of that bundle. For instance, the owner of property has the right to sell it, improve it, demolish it, rent it, give away a partial interest, and reside in it. The life...