"Charlie Toohey" <toohey@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
My wife and I currently own "community property" in California,
i.e. the titles are held in both of our names "as community
property".
If I move this property into a living trust, then the title will
now be in the name of the trust. This means that we will be
losing the title, designating that the property is community
property, so how should we designate that ? Within the trust ?
In a separate document ?
If you purchased it while married, it will be presumed to be
community property. The trust may also have a provision specifying
that all assets that would otherwise be community property will
continue to be when owned by the trust.
To further clarify the question, consider these two situations:
A) I own a house as my own separate property, and I transfer the
deed for the house into a shared living trust (shared with my
spouse).
B) My wife and I own a house as community property, and we
transfer the deed for the house into a shared living trust.
Now, in both situations A and B, the deed for the house is now
the same, i.e. the title is held in the name of our shared
trust. So, how to retain the designation that the house is
either my separate property, or community property ?
You can specify it in the trust or in a separate agreement. Or the
source of funds to acquire the property will be traced to see who
the owner is. If you acquired property A while married, it may be
presumed to be community unless you prove it's not, even if it's in
your name alone.
Stu
