As a Ventura County estate planning law firm specializing in family partnerships, our firm commonly receives questions about family partnership options. We have a team of experts with the legal knowledge to answer questions about the process of choosing a family partnership, and what the benefits of proper estate planning can be.
Our firm can provide expert legal services as estate planning attorneys. We are a Southern California based law firm in business since 1985. We specialize in family partnerships and estate planning matters.
To learn more about family partnerships, or if you would like a free consultation to learn if a family partnership is right for you, please do not hesitate to contact us at (805) 482-2282, or e-mail us.
Why not use a co-ownership of fractional interests (a tenancy-in-common) instead?
Instead of a family partnership, you could hold assets with your children as co-owners as what is called “tenants-in-common.” As tenants-in-common, you would each literally own an undivided piece of the asset. In some situations, the tenancy-in-common may more easily avoid a “change in ownership” under Proposition 13 with its increase in property taxes.
However, most times the family partnership may be structured to avoid such an increase.
A tenancy-in-common generally is not as desirable as a family partnership because the IRS contends the “minority” and “lack of marketability” discounts are not as large in a tenancy-in-common. In addition, the deeds involved in annual gifting are burdensome. Also, you cannot control the entire asset; all the co-owners have to agree to do anything. In addition, the co-tenancy provides no creditor protection. However, we have had a number of families choose to go this way.
It is our privilege to guide clients through estate planning decisions
