Holding Title Vs. Your Will
i'm alot confused. bought a house with a partner. we own different percentages. both splitting the mortgage. the title is completly in my name along with the mortgage. dumb and ****Must Reach Freshman Investor status before posting URL's***he question is what is the best way to hold title ie; land trust, tenancy in common. we both want our shares to go to our seperate heirs in the event of death. in the case of asset protection can we each increase our homestead protection with tenancy in common? and in a land trust can we have different percentages in our wills. hopefully not to confusing. thank you .tracy in california. 
I'd urge you and your partner to have a local lawyer give you some estate planning advice on this.
In order to make it easy for your heirs and partner, should you die first, I think an LLC would be better than just joint ownership, with your trust owning half the units of the LLC. And your partner or his trust would own the other units of the LLC..
Anything other than having it in a trust that would survive you would require a probate of your estate (last will if you have one, or intestate probate if you don't), and in CA that could be a pretty expensive proposition.
If you both do nothing, and one of you dies, then it's completely possible a court action might be necessary to unravel your heirs' respective rights.
thanks john,
when you want legal advice the best place to go of course is a lawyer. just being lazy and trying to shortcut and/or educate myself. has got me into trouble before. hey, how's the market in tacoma? love that place. used to live in seattle and had a girlfriend there. back when it was the aroma in tacoma. heard they cleaned it up. ah, i miss the beautiful n.w. thanks t.d.