Selling A High-Value Estate When One Heir Has A Disability: The Sale That Can Cost A Child Their Benefits ๐
A parent dies, the home passes to the children, and one of them has a disability. Everyone agrees to sell. The listing goes up, an offer comes in, the closing happens, and each heir gets a check. Three weeks later the disabled sibling loses their SSI and their Medicaid because their share landed in their name and pushed them past the $2,000 asset limit that keeps both in place.
That's the part of an estate sale that gets missed most. A home isn't a line on a settlement statement. It's a family's largest asset splitting several ways at once, and one of those ways has to be handled before the home hits the market.
Here's what that looks like on closing day: the disabled heir's share doesn't go to them, it goes into a special needs trust that holds it on their behalf. Their name never touches the wire, the trust's does. And it has to be created before closing, because once the money hits a personal account the damage is done, and it takes months to undo. The other heirs wire out normally. Nothing about the price or the negotiation changes. Only where one wire goes.
The attorney handles the trust. The CPA handles the tax. The real estate side is mine, and on a sale like this that means pricing the home for what this market will pay and coordinating with the attorney so the disabled heir's share goes to the trust at closing, not into their name.
Get both halves working together, and the family sells for what the home is worth while the disabled sibling keeps the benefits the sale was meant to protect.
If you're holding a sale like this together, reply to this email or text me at (305) 401-6224. And if a family you know is about to list a home with a disabled heir, forward this to them first.
Victor Antunez
Real Estate Professional ๐ Autism Dadvocate
PS. If buying or selling a home is on your mind, and you want to talk it through, text or call me at (305) 401-6224
PSS. Nothing means more than a real estate referral. If someone comes to mind, please send them my way.