By Lisa Laredo | Laredo Law
October 26th, 2024
Performing a title search on your property as part of your estate plan could save your heirs both money and hassle.
Title searches are more commonly performed as part of a real estate deal to ensure that there are no liens, easements or other encumbrances on the property before it is transferred to a new owner. However, a house sale is not the only time a property may require a title search.
In Investment Executive magazine, a financial advisor recently wrote about the experience of a colleague attempting to distribute a property from the estate of a wealthy client who had died suddenly, only to find that a long-forgotten lien remained on title. The lien in this case may not carry much of a financial burden on its own, since the builder who registered it has since died and their company is no longer in business. However, the whole episode held up the administration of the estate while the estate trustee investigated the lien to validate it and determine whether the debt needed to be paid.
A title search performed during estate planning could help ensure that any issues are dealt with long before the property becomes part of your estate. For a lucky few longer-standing property owners, title searches could even offer a financial boost, thanks to a legal quirk known as the “first dealings” rule.
Lisa Laredo, Founder and Principal at Laredo Law
