Dear Betty: Beneficiary deeds help transfer property

One of my new year's resolutions for 2010 is to get responsible and

organize my affairs so my kids' inheritance will be protected. When my own

parents died (in a car crash), they weren't ready, and great amounts of money seemed to

disappear into attorney fees and court costs. I know Mom and Dad wouldn't have wanted that - or the delays. A friend of mine said she thought she remembered the Montana Legislature working on something called a beneficiary deed, which would transfer property automatically in the event of the owner's death. Do you know the status of that?

- Avoiding Probate if I Can

Dear Avoiding,

The 2007 Montana Legislature did authorize an easy way for you to leave your home and land to your kids or to anyone else: it's called a

beneficiary deed, and it provides a means to

transfer your real property (which includes your land and the buildings on it) to one or more grantee

beneficiaries upon your death - no probate involved. (MCA 72-6-121)

Before recording a beneficiary deed you'll need to first fill out a Montana realty transfer certificate, which you can obtain at your clerk and recorder's office ( or at http://revenue.mt.gov/revenue/formsandresources/forms/

488RTC.pdf). For both these documents you'll need the legal description of your property (use what's on a previously recorded deed rather than your property tax bill). For the beneficiary deed you'll need only provide the post office address of the

person or persons who will receive your property - it's not necessary to have them sign or consent to the transfer. You'll record the beneficiary deed at the clerk and recorder's office in the county where your property is located.

It's a fairly straightforward process, but for most people there are decisions to make. While you could have multiple grantee beneficiaries, some people name only one. In those cases, people need to think about what would happen if the grantee died first. Some options would be to void the deed, allow the property to be distributed according to the will of the grantee(s) or to specify a successor grantee.

Another issue to

consider is what kind of ownership you'd like to transfer. If you are leaving your property to several people, for example, should they hold the

property as joint tenants with rights of survivorship or as tenants in common? To understand these types of ownership, take a look at Property Ownership: Estate Planning, a

publication of the Montana State University (MSU) Extension (www.msuextension.

org/). Since the deed itself doesn't specify type of ownership for multiple beneficiaries, getting help from an attorney on this issue is important.

In fact, consulting an attorney is a good idea if any issues surrounding this important transfer aren't 100 percent clear to you. It's a big step, with big consequences, so do everything you can to make sure that the transfer goes smoothly.

MSU Extension has a great publication that can guide you - Beneficiary Deeds in Montana. It can be found, along with Property Ownership, at www.msuextension.org. For both documents, first click Publications, on the left, then Family Financial Management in the right-hand menu, to get an alphabetical listing of downloadable publications. Good luck!

Dear Betty is a biweekly question-and-answer column sponsored by Mountain-Pacific Quality Health, the Medicare quality improvement organization for Montana. Betty, a board member of Mountain-Pacific is also president of the Montana Senior Citizens Association, a certified Montana SHIP counselor and an AARP volunteer. Please mail your questions on senior issues to Betty at Mountain-Pacific Quality Health, 3404 Cooney Drive, Helena MT 59602 or e-mail them to dearbetty@mpqhf.org.