Is ‘Giving While Living’ the Best Way To Hand Down Your Home to the Next Generation?

Whether you call it giving while living, giving with warm hands rather than cold, or a living inheritance, the prospect of sharing your wealth with the next generation before you pass away is becoming more mainstream. In an interview with Fortune, Penny Pennington, managing partner of wealth management firm Edward Jones, described how clients are embracing the practice, and the publication reported that a “growing number” of the firm’s 9 million clients are doing so.A study from Wealth.com found that financial advisers say 46% of clients who plan to transfer assets also intend to give some of their wealth during their lifetimes.Giving while living has mostly been a conversation among wealthy families. For everyone else, the question gets harder, because the home is often the most valuable thing a family owns.In general, what you give matters as much as whether you give. If the goal is to give your children a home, handing over the house can work. If the goal is to pass on as much value as possible, the house itself may not be the right gift. A changing approach to giving Sharing your wealth with the next generation, or generations, can take a number of forms, including gifting mone...