I don't believe you can add them to the mortgage. At least if I remember right from when I was at WF. You can't add them because if you were to injured die etc your wife would be responsible for the mortgage payment. Since they didn't underwrite your wife to be on it they wont do it. You would have to reapply and get a new mortgage. It also prevents people from improving their credit score by jumping on other peoples credit products.

Yes I understand about the mortgage. I'm curious as to why someone would add a spouse to the deed for the case specified.

You need to see a lawyer on this one. I'd bet a bunch of $$, either way you're giving away at least half your shit in the event of a divorce.

That's what I was thinking as well. Sounds like a big PIA if any there is any trouble in a few years.

The primary reason would be estate planning related as holding it just in your name can have some potentially bad effects if you die first. If you hold the house together jointly and you die, it will pass directly to your wife without going through probate. If you are the sole owner, at a minimum probate's a real hassle and if you have large enough estate it could mean a hefty tax bill. Its also possible (here I'm flying form the seat of my pants) that if the house and the mortgage are solely in your name and you die, the bank can call the mortgage once you are gone and thus your surviving wife might have to sell the house and possibly take a loss if she can't get a new mortgage.

Of course, if you are just going to get divorced in a few years, forget the estate plan and spend the money on a prenup.

The better question is, why would one get married if they think there is enough of a chance that it will end in divorce after only a few years, that it is not worth adding the person to the deed of the house they own? I would think getting married, then divorced after only a few years would be a bigger PIA then adding someone to a deed.
Of course maybe it's just the way I was raised or that I'm not hip to this new fad of short term marriages.

This is tricky.

Assume scenario 1) You put 50% down, you get married, your spouse will not work or contribute anything.

Assume scenario 2) You put very little down, you get married, your spouse will take over payments and *you* will no tcontribute anything.

Assume scenario 3) something in between.


When living with my GF (now wife), she owned the house, but I paid her rent. My rent turned into equity for her. If we broke up, woul dshe get to keep all of the equity?


The reason why I say its tricky is because once you get married, who owns what has a very fine line between what is fair and reasonable, and what is just being petty. One thing I know that would bug the crap out of me if I was the woman is the agreement that I'd stay home and take care of the kids (which is a job) but then not accumulate any wealth because my husband "makes the money and supports me"......even though I'd be giving him *free* child care.

On a side note, I've got a friend who does not pay for anything for his wife and she pays nothing for him. If they go out to dinner, they figure out who ate what and divide the check. He thought what he was doing was pretty normal and then got pissed at me when I told him that, actually, it was very strange and smacked of pettiness.

Anyway, back to the OP - fine line between fair/reasonable and petty.

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Can't you just make her a beneficiary some other way like in a will? Most financial institutions make it pretty easy to set up beneficiaries for one's financial investments, accounts etc. Does something like this exist for real estate without risking the loss of half if things go south before you die?

Right call by STP. Is it a commentary on society that divorce planning is a higher priority than estate planning?

I'm no estate planning expert so ignore what I say but, if you leave it to her in your will, it goes through probate and is part of your taxable estate. At a minimum there will be some legal fees involved to do the probate and if you have a big enough estate she'll have to pay taxes.

But you are right, that's optional. For lots of reason most of which I am not knowledgible enough to think of much less understand, there may be reasons to do it differently, both tax related and plain old "I want to keep my shit" related. But, if you are a normal middle class person, you actually want to share your property with your wife "till death do us part" the property laws are set up to make the transfer of real property between spouses upon the death of one hassle free, and to a large extent, tax free. That is the reason why most spouses hold title to their property jointly.

I am going through a divorce right now, but here goes.

I am in California, owned my home prior to the marriage with about 50% equity. Each is entitled to the assets they owned prior to marriage, in my case the equity of the house prior to marriage. After 18 years and now going through a divorce, I am getting the equity from my previous home as part of the settlement.

Hope this helps.

I think Cali is one of the community property states (unlike Ohio).

Ok thanks for the info. Makes sense.

You are correct on all fronts in this thread.

Being in CA might be the only reason not to do this, but as another poster pointed out, you're putting a divorce settlement ahead of estate planning. Which begs the question: Why get married? Just become common law or something.

I don't think it's unreasonable to put "divorce planning " ahead of estate planning. No matter what your intentions or how sincere you are, anyone getting married ought to know that the changes of a divorce before death is pretty high.

Moreover, I'm not convinced creating a joint tenancy is the good estate planning.

To each there own on planning for a divorce at the outset of a wedding. Not how I roll, but I can see why some people (especially if they are on a second marriage) might do so.

I went "all in". That's how I roll.

My house is owned by a Trust. My wife is Trustee.
Our attorney suggested this as part of our estate planning and asset protection several years after we got married and our financial position improved.

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Lifeguard: "Do you need help?" Me: "No, that's just my butterfly."

You should have stopped your post at, "Why add spouse."