If you own a place already then DO NOT put your name on your parents house because your portion of it will become taxable unless you declare it your principal residence at which point your current place becomes taxable.

The probate tax is pretty trivial - for a $2.5m place it's $35k. (https://westcoastwills.com/bc-probate-fee-calculator/)

As long as the house is in your parents name and it's their principal residence there's no taxes for you to pay on the value of the property up till the time they die. From the time they die till 1 year after you only owe probate and then after that you also owe taxes on any capital gains that happen. So if you can sell the house in year 1 then it's just the $35k you owe (split between you and your brother) (Edit: I can't find the explanation where it says you have a 1 year grace period so I could be wrong in this).

As always, I'm not a tax advisor so do consult a tax advisor if things get serious b/c it's A LOT of money.

Lack of wills and estate planning is a thing in many cultures outside of the WASP culture. Think about those cultures' relationship to authority and generally how those cultures work.

My parents are Westernized and they've had their wills and estate planning sorted for decades. My wife's parents are not Asian, but they are immigrants from another part of the world. They have been very reluctant to contemplate their own mortality and actually put together a will.

My mom bugs me so much to get a will every single time I even go on a trip that I feel like somehow she's planning to sabotage my plane or something lol

I guess I should do something about it though... someone gonna want my fleet of old cars!

nowadays you can make a will online very easily.
you can take it and get it notarized and it will only cost you a few hundred dollars.
any will, even one that simply says 'i leave everything to x' is so much better than no will.
and no, literally putting on a piece of paper and locking it away does not count as a will.. that can be easily challenged and is as good as not having a will.

This is something kind of interesting I saw today, haven’t really seen this before

It’s pretty much a front/back duplex duplex?

Front

https://i.imgur.com/RYkmuxD.jpg

Rear

https://i.imgur.com/bLkhplE.jpg

There’s a little lawn in between the front and back buildings

The over all structure looks massive in comparison to its neighbour.

I was just looking at the building permits for this home, apparently the main home was classified as a character home.

https://vancouver.ca/home-property-d...ter-house.aspx

EDIT:

https://plposweb.vancouver.ca/Public...earchByAddress

You can see all the permits associated with that particular infill home if you're curious

As a broad strategy, owning a house that you rent out, while you in turn rent somewhere else to live is generally not ideal. The reason is that one of the biggest advantages to home ownership is the fact it goes up in value tax free and you lose the ability if you don't live in a property that you own.

If the goal is to maximize inheritance, then ironically it makes more sense to actually sell the house, give the money to the kids, then have them buy bigger houses that over time will go up in value tax-free.

There are also advantages to this from the perspective of minimizing estate tax.

This is a very short and abbreviated answer but there is a longer and more thorough one. This type of planning is part of what my team does for a living. You can PM me if you want to discuss more.

-Mark

Ignorance is never an excuse, but in this case, I'd have to say you are not understanding / acknowledging the powerful cultural norms that some people -- esp those from an older generation -- grew up with, and is deeply ingrained in their heads.

My parents have their wills laid out -- the siblings are just gonna split their stuff. But for some people, a will is something they'd only put together moments before they draw their final breathes as they lay on their death beds. (For those hailing from Hong Kong, I squarely blame TVB for their idiotic portrayal of this thru their numerous classic but totally distorted Chinese dramas.)

It is exactly as Tapioca has said -- some people are very reluctant to contemplate their own mortality, and have an entirely distorted and unrealistic view of how their final journey in the world would be like. And if you urge them to draw up a will -- all your logical argument will just fall on deaf ears as they shut down that part of their brain. They may get upset whenever you mention it. And the more you mention it, the more upset they get, and the more upset they get at you. Is that how a son wants his relationship with his parents are in the final few years before their passing? Is it more important to do the financially intelligent thing, at the cost of a strained parent-children relationship?

(For what it is worth, my grandfather on my mom's side was someone like that. The year or two before his passing, it was very obvious his health was rapidly deteriorating. At first they were trying to limit the unhealthy foods that he enjoyed eating. And then it proceeded to recurring urges to get him to be as active as he can be (instead of just sitting on the couch or staying in his room most of the day). I think the mentioning of establishing a will came up a single time, and he got so incredibly furious that I was surprised he was still able to be that upset at that stage of his health. I even mostly remember the exact words that he yelled back in anger -- "Are you guys (referring to my mom and her multiple siblings) cursing me and really want me to die? Do you really want to split up my belongings so badly that you want to do it right now?"

My mom, uncles, and aunts obviously had their best intentions in mind when they were trying to get my grandfather to do all those things. But I know that at least with my mom, she carries with her a certain degree of remorse for "trying to do the right thing" even though it strained their relationship with her dad.

How does this relate to having a will? If no will is established, does what you describe apply? Would like to read more on this

Yeah for me, I learned no matter what province you choose to live, you'll be dancing with some kinda poison so pick the one that's least deadly for your quality of life. I'm starting to think snow is ok in exchange for lower cost of living and, hence, more money in my bank accounts.

:badpokerface:

For me, my industry may be shaken up hard within the next 10 years and real estate here has shifted negligibly for me personally. I basically want a house now like Trollface wants a Golf R. Hell, I've even browsed Saskatoon! :lol

In regards to not hurting your dieing parents feelings in discussing finances while they are on their way out. Let’s look at a conservative estimate

Say they own a 2 million dollar home, whether it’s full of egg cartons or not, we’ll say it’s worth 2 million. They don’t want a will because even though they are 85 and chronically ill, they don’t want to discuss their mortality.

By having no will you are subject to a $200,000 loss financially in fees, administration, and poorly handled asset transfer taxes etc.

$200,000 without even compounding your gains, at a modest 7% return more than doubles in a 20 year span, you’re looking at turning that $200,000 into 600,000 in 20 years.

So I’d say yea.. given the state of the world and given how hard it is to get a leg up, and how much harder your children’s lives are going to be, broaching those subjects with a dieing parent IS worth upsetting them in their dieing days in order to create a hugely beneficial scenario for your own family moving forward.

Tbh kind of to westophers point before, these are the type of people who don’t deserve what they ultimately ended up receiving for no reason other than luck.

Plus you get those lovely last memories of squeezing every last drop you could out of your dying parents property before they croak. Appreciate it pops

Yea, just flushing it down the toilet is way better. I guess if you never earned it/appreciated it who cares anyways

Maybe they raised entitled little shits that only care about money and they would rather see Trudeau get it

I am, somewhat unfortunately, the son of someone who cares absolutely nothing about family legacy or money...

So my dad is pretty rich, but he will not so much as lift a finger to properly invest or make sure he's doing the right things to build up his wealth. I've lost count how many times he's passed up simple things that required 1 or 2 emails that could have saved him or profited him $20,000 here or $30,000 there.

So yah, there are people out there who don't give a fuck, they're not spending it but they're also not concerned with trying to create some empire that their kids take over and their kids after that take over as well.

I stopped pushing him to do the "right" thing anymore and so did my sister... which includes trying to get him to even just spend his money... modernize their house... or sell their house and move to something that isn't a 1970's shitbox... or go travelling... or buy some nice stuff. it is what it is, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. My dad TALKS about how he doesn't want the government to have anything, but then he is mentally blocked somehow from even just picking up a phone and calling a proper accountant or estate advisor. Even if you send him a contact he won't bother with it.

I don't understand it... but then I don't understand most of what he does... I know if I was as rich as him I wouldn't be driving a 20 year old Highlander and sitting in my basement all day reading books about programming!!!

old men are exactly that, old men. hard to get them to change their ways.

Im feeling older and older every year. I found that musically ive not enjoyed anything new since 2000's and movies are only good up to 2010-ish

soon ill be in my basement (richmond doesnt have basements right?) eruhhh garage reading shit about starcraft 1 and reliving protoss vs zerg tactics from 1999. Battle net dialup here i come!!!

GG NO RE

BGH was always the best on SC2

Haha yah first floor = basement.. it's just so dark in there it feels like a basement ugh... we're talking dark brown shag carpeting yooooo

The sound of modems connecting should be recreated on something, it's a lost pleasure

OOOOOF... strata fees went up from $346.20 to $390.01 for me in my building... on a 683 sq ft place... $400 a month geez.

.57/sq ft seems kinda high.

Hard to believe it was $200 like 5 years ago.

LOL at that house getting character house designation: https://goo.gl/maps/F5MHbQo9pnMwnh337

My in-laws have a 97 year old house in the same style that's in better shape than that house - original floors still. Never considered that it could get a character house designation.

That is quite the jump

I went from 240$ in 2017 to 330$ today, 7xxsqft, 25 year old building.

This is the first year they are actually not even increasing it at all which is surprising.

What are the "excuses" this time from strata / insurance company? Are the maintenance becoming more expensive? Depreciation report not looking good? Insurance seeing another massive hike etc.?

There's been some issues here with pipes getting clogged in the parkade and I think about 3-4 ground floor units flooded... $50k deductible on insurance each time. Swimming pool envelope took a shit too.

They've been through the building on the ground floor units (one of which I am) twice in the last year in a panic doing some pipe work and in the parkade too. Blaming it on people flushing shit and putting cooking grease down the drains.

Building is 13 years old.

Yikes... that doesn't sound good for a 13 year old building, but at least you know why the strata fee hike is happening.

So what's the general best advice for shuffling parents home to kids? Don't add name before they die? And put it in mom's name only? Assuming women usually lives longer. So you only pay capital gain from death to sell? What if you don't sell it.