The Great Wealth Transfer Could Get Tangled in America’s Property Records

Nearly 1 in 5 (19%) U.S. homeowners says they either don’t have or aren’t sure they have a clear title and recorded deed to their home, according to a new survey.Most homeowners may have little reason to think about those documents until they need them. But a title and deed are the legal records of who owns a home—and whether that ownership can be passed from one generation to the next.“It causes a lot of damage later,” Rachel Gallegos, an attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, tells Realtor.com®.On the eve of the Great Wealth Transfer, the stakes of having those records in place are only growing. Cerulli Associates estimates that Americans will transfer $124 trillion through 2048, including $105 trillion to heirs.Homes will be among those assets changing hands. If the ownership records don’t change with them, a home can remain in a family for years before anyone realizes there is a problem.The new survey, from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, offers a glimpse of how many homeowners may already be approaching that transfer with basic questions about their ownership unresolved.How a home gets a tangled titleThe ownership problems Gallegos handles at Community Le...