Deed of Trust now that we are married

fluffymovie

Driving home from work today I had a thought.

My darling gran passed away in 2004 and left me an inheritance which I put as the deposit on our first home together.

The deposit was almost 50% of the purchase price and as it was money that my incredible grandparents had put away for me, I looked to protect it by getting a Deed of Trust in my name. This basically said that if my now husband and I seperate, I would recieve 75% of the sale price after mortgage, and hubby would receive 25%,

Don't get me wrong, everything is going fine in our marriage and I am not thinking about seperating but want to be sure that should the unexpected happen, I have covered myself.

As I am now married, does the deed of trust cease to be valid. Also, as it is in my maiden name, would I need to get it changed to my married name to be legal? I don't really want to have to ask hubby to sign it again if I do need it to be changed as I feel it would show that I am not committed to our marriage which I am but I was brought up to respect money and plan for the worst but hope for the best.

Does anyone have any idea on this?

seabright

The Deed of trust only ceases to be in force when one of you decides to end it, unless you put a clause in that it would end when a particular event/date/whatever occured.

You don't need to change it when your name changes.

I draw these up for people quite a lot, in all different circumstances and I always suggest that they treat them as an on-going and changeable agreement, so they alter as your lives alter, to reflect what you need.

For example, an agreement that suited you as two single (but a couple, IYSWIM) people with no financial commitments other than a joint mortgage might be very different to one your draft now, if you had 3 children and mortgage, joint investments and only one of you working full-time.

If you find it a bit awkward to bring up with your DH, in case he thinks you aren't committed, why not suggest you review it and your wills together? They are both the sort of things that need reviewing at least every 5 years. that's not to say you have to change them every 5 years, just read through and think whether they still suit your lives.