Business
What wealthy parents need to know about giving real estate to their kids
A local house with a porch in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA.
Wolfgang Kaehler | Lightrocket | Getty Images
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
The great wealth transfer is leading to a great real estate transfer, with up to $25 trillion in real estate owned by older generations that could get passed down — and fought over — in their families.
According to Cerulli Associates, $105 trillion is expected to be passed down by baby boomers and older generations by 2048. Real estate, including primary and vacation homes, as well as investment properties, is expected to be a large component. The silent generation and baby boomers own nearly $25 trillion in real estate combined, according to the Federal Reserve.
Yet with property comes conflict. Wealth advisors say handing down real estate is increasingly filled with both financial and emotional pitfalls for families, ranging from taxes and maintenance costs to disputes over ownership and usage. The straightforward solution is just to sell it and divide the proceeds.
“Some people want to retain the house and other children don’t,” said BNY Wealth’s Jere Doyle. “I can tell you, as a practical matter, there’s going to be fights. There’s going to be disagreements. You’re not going to have the perfect situation.”
But lawyers and wealth planners say there are measures families can take to more effectively pass down real estate to minimize taxes, costs and family battles. Here are five secrets to successful real estate inheritances, whether it’s an apartment on Park Avenue, a beach house on the Vineyard or a ranch in Montana.
1. Transfer real estate in your will or through a trust to avoid a major tax bill.
Passing down vacation homes is the most fraught, said Elisa Rizzo of J.P. Morgan Private Bank. Her clients often downsize their primary residences later in life, but families stay attached to their second homes.
“That vacation home, often for our families that are very mobile, becomes the centering place,” said Rizzo, head of family office advisory at JP Morgan. “The vacation homes are where people go, and they make really special memories with one another, whether it’s a ski house up in Vermont or a vacation home on Nantucket.”
Doyle advises against gifting long-held real estate before you die. If your heirs choose to sell the property, they have to pay capital gains taxes on the property’s appreciation since the parents originally bought the property.
“If you give during your lifetime, the kids take your cost basis,” said Doyle, senior estate planning strategist for BNY Wealth. “One of the things that people have to bear in mind is that the senior generation probably didn’t pay an awful lot for the property.”
There are ways to minimize the tax burden, such as using a qualified personal residence trust. However, if you can afford to wait, it is best to leave real estate to your heirs in your will or in a trust at death, according to Doyle. If the heirs later sell the property, they only have to pay capital gains taxes on how much the home has appreciated since they inherited it.
2. Use LLCs and trusts to shield the home from lawsuits.
Rather than having the heirs own the property directly, lawyers recommend placing homes in a limited liability company and setting up a trust for the kids’ benefit that holds interest in the LLC.
These legal maneuvers protect assets in several ways. For instance, if a vacation home is rented and a tenant slips and falls, the heirs are not held personally liable for any damages.
“Your other assets, stocks, bonds, are not subject to any creditors’ claims,” Doyle said.
It also shields heirs from the liabilities of their siblings, according to Dan Griffith, director of wealth strategy at Huntington Private Bank. For instance, if one heir files for bankruptcy, the LLC structure prevents the creditors from putting a lien on the shared home, he said.
You can also save on transfer taxes by gifting interest in an LLC that owns the property rather than putting heirs’ names on the deed, Griffith said. Since these fractional interests are illiquid, parents can claim a discount on the taxable value.
3. Outline who gets to use the home and how.
Parents can put rules in place with an operating agreement for the LLC. Clients can use the document to make sure the home doesn’t end up in the hands of their children’s spouses, which is a common concern, according to Northern Trust’s Laura Mandel.
“Typically families want to retain these properties along the bloodline,” said the chief fiduciary officer.
Parents can restrict an LLC interest from transferring to surviving or former spouses of their children. With a well-drawn trust, it would be difficult for the spouse to contest it in court, Mandel said. These operating agreements often include buyout provisions that allow the heirs to buy out the spouse.
Parents can also use the document to guide how the property is used, such as laying out how many holiday weekends each child gets, who has the right to redecorate or whether the home can be rented out or used for weddings.
Leaving these issues unaddressed can cause fights among siblings. Mandel recalled a set of four siblings with a large ranch out west that they rented out frequently. After complaints that the ranch felt like a “VRBO,” Mandel helped the siblings reach an agreement on how the property could be used.
4. Set aside liquid assets for the house’s upkeep and insurance.
Money is the most common trigger for family feuds, Griffith said. An inherited home can quickly become a financial burden unless the parents also set aside cash to pay for the upkeep.
“What ends up inevitably happening there is that one person pays the bills, and then enormous resentment grows, because either that person has to ask their siblings or cousins for money and sometimes those people don’t pay,” he said. “Or they say, ‘Hey, I’m the one paying all the bills. How come I don’t get to use this more often than any of the rest of you?'”
Doyle recommends that parents use liquid assets like marketable securities or take out a life insurance policy in order to endow the trust. This outlay makes it possible for siblings to hold onto the home even if they can’t afford to share the expenses.
“In a lot of cases, you may have some kids that can afford to pay the maintenance expenses, and others can’t, so how do you treat them equally?” he said.
However, the operating agreement should still include a contingency plan for dividing expenses if the trust runs dry. This is especially important for waterfront homes that are expensive to insure or susceptible to erosion.
5. Prepare for the likelihood that some heirs may want to cash out.
Parents often assume that their children will want to keep the home, according to Mandel. However, even if heirs initially agree to, they may change their minds later. Perhaps they grow tired of sharing a home with their cousins or a death in the family changes the equation, she said. For instance, Mandel worked with a ranch-owning family where the only sibling with working knowledge of the property passed away unexpectedly, which upended the living siblings’ plan to run the ranch.
It’s important to plan for the likelihood that some or all of the heirs will want to cash out. Doyle suggests creating buyout provisions that allow heirs to buy their siblings’ LLC interest even if they don’t have the liquidity, such as taking out a promissory note. The assets in the trust can also be used to buy siblings’ interests in the LLC.
“What you’ve got to build into any plan is an understanding that people’s circumstances and situations can and will definitely change,” he said. “Maybe they’re going to have kids, or their job changes, or their health changes. Things change.”
This can be hard for parents to reconcile, but keeping heirs’ hands tied defeats the purpose of a vacation home, Griffith said.
“If your grandchildren don’t have any ties to this place, no one lives here, no one grew up here, nobody cares, then do you really care if they sell the place?” he said. “If somebody else who really does care about it gets to enjoy it, is that such a bad thing?”
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The layoffs account for 3-4% of Flipkart’s workforce, which is higher than the company’s practice of letting go of 1-2% of employees in the lowest performance bracket every year.
Flipkart Layoffs 2026.
Flipkart Layoffs 2026: Flipkart, the Walmart-owned e-commerce giant, has reportedly asked around 400-500 employees to exit the company this year following its annual performance review process. According to a report by The Economic Times, the layoffs account for roughly 3-4% of Flipkart’s workforce, which is higher than the company’s usual practice of letting go of 1-2% of employees in the lowest performance bracket every year.
Why Has Flipkart Laid Off Employees?
Responding to queries, Flipkart said the move is part of its routine evaluation process. “Flipkart conducts regular performance reviews aligned with clearly defined expectations. As part of this process, a small percentage of employees may transition from the organisation. We are supporting affected employees with transition support,” the company said, according to Mint.
Layoffs Across Teams, Hiring Continues For Senior Roles
The job cuts have reportedly impacted employees across multiple departments and job levels. At the same time, the company continues to recruit senior executives as it prepares for a potential initial public offering (IPO).
According to a report by ANI, Flipkart has recently strengthened its leadership team with several senior appointments.
These include Somnath Das as vice-president (supply chain), Digbijay Mishra as vice-president (corporate communications), Vipin Kapooria as vice-president (business finance), Yogita Shanbhag as vice-president (human resources), and Amer Hussain as vice-president (supply chain for its grocery and quick-commerce businesses).
Flipkart Preparing For India IPO
In December 2025, Flipkart received approval from the National Company Law Tribunal to shift its legal domicile from Singapore to India, a key step ahead of a potential domestic listing.
The restructuring involved merging eight Singapore-based entities into Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd, simplifying the group’s holding structure across businesses such as fashion, health and logistics.
Loss Widens Despite Revenue Growth
Financial data shows that Flipkart continues to expand its business, although losses have widened.
According to data from Tofler, Flipkart India reported a consolidated loss of Rs 5,189 crore in FY25, compared with Rs 4,248.3 crore in FY24.
However, revenue from operations rose 17.3% to Rs 82,787.3 crore, up from Rs 70,541.9 crore a year earlier.
Total expenses also increased 17.4% to Rs 88,121.4 crore, largely due to higher stock-in-trade purchases, which climbed to Rs 87,737.8 crore, compared with Rs 74,271.2 crore in the previous financial year.
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March 07, 2026, 14:51 IST
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Business
Want To Buy A House In Karnataka? Know About The ‘Namma Mane’ Scheme With Affordable Housing & Subsidies
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The programme aims to make land ownership more accessible for eligible residents while supporting the government’s wider goal of providing housing for all.
Under the ‘Namma Mane’ housing scheme 50,000 residential plots will be distributed at concessional rates over the next two years.
What if owning a home became a little more achievable? In the latest Karnataka Budget, the state government has announced a series of housing initiatives aimed at expanding access to affordable homes and residential plots. From the ‘Namma Mane’ scheme offering concessional sites to increased subsidies for beneficiaries and plans for a massive sports complex in Anekal, the announcements signal a renewed push towards housing development across the state.
The Karnataka government has unveiled several housing and infrastructure initiatives in the latest state budget, including the distribution of thousands of residential plots and the construction of a large sports complex in Bengaluru’s Anekal taluk. The announcements are part of broader efforts to expand housing access and improve public infrastructure across the state.
Karnataka Budget Housing Scheme: Key Benefits
One of the key proposals is the introduction of the ‘Namma Mane’ housing scheme, under which 50,000 residential plots will be distributed at concessional rates over the next two years. The programme aims to make land ownership more accessible for eligible residents while supporting the government’s wider goal of providing housing for all.
The Housing Department has also set a new target of sanctioning one lakh houses under various housing schemes in the state. These houses will be approved based on the Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC) model, which allows eligible beneficiaries to construct their own homes with financial support from the government.
As part of this initiative, the government has increased the subsidy amount provided under housing schemes. For beneficiaries in the general category, the subsidy has been raised from Rs 1.20 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. Meanwhile, beneficiaries from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will receive increased assistance, with the subsidy rising from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh.
The budget also introduces a change in the process used to select beneficiaries for state housing schemes. Instead of the traditional manual lottery system, selections will now be conducted through an online lottery in Gram Sabhas. The move is expected to improve transparency and streamline the allocation process.
In addition to housing initiatives, the Karnataka Housing Board has announced plans to develop a major sports facility in Anekal taluk of Bengaluru Urban district. The project, titled ‘KHB Surya Krida Grama’, will include the construction of an 80,000-seat cricket stadium designed to host international sporting events.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Slum Development Board is continuing the implementation of housing projects under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (AHP). A total of 1.29 lakh houses are being constructed under the scheme, with 79,134 homes dedicated for the year 2025–26. The state government has allocated an additional grant of Rs 1,136 crore to support the project, providing permanent housing to many slum residents.
Since the Congress government came to power, Rs 7,328 crore has been spent on various housing schemes. So far, 4,19,454 houses have been completed and handed over to beneficiaries. The government has set a target to complete three lakh houses during the current year.
Authorities have also stated that steps will be taken to complete the 4.90 lakh houses sanctioned by the previous government, even though they were approved without grants.
March 07, 2026, 10:51 IST
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