For new homeowners
You just bought a home. Now protect it.
Buying your first home is one of the biggest financial decisions of your life. But the mortgage and the deed alone don’t protect your family if something happens to you. See exactly what’s at risk — for your address — in 30 seconds.
Check your home’s probate exposure
Enter your home address. We’ll show you what your family could lose if something happens to you before you set up a trust. Free, no signup needed.
Your address is used only to calculate your local home value and state-specific probate cost. We don’t store it unless you sign up.
Why a mortgage isn’t enough
When you buy a home, your name goes on the deed and your name goes on the mortgage. If you die, both of those obligations and rights go through probate — the legal process of transferring ownership through a court.
Probate is slow (6 to 18 months), expensive (3 to 7 percent of your home’s value), and public. Your family can’t sell the house, refinance, or even reliably pay the mortgage during this time. In states like California, statutory fees can exceed $25,000 on a $1 million home.
A revocable living trust avoids all of it. You transfer the home into the trust (still your home, still under your control), and when you die, it passes directly to your beneficiaries with no court involvement.
What just changed in your estate planning needs
1. You now own probatable property
Before you owned a home, you might have qualified for your state’s small estate exemption. Most homeowners no longer do. A home, even with a mortgage, almost always pushes you over the threshold — meaning full probate.
2. Your mortgage doesn’t die with you
The bank still wants its monthly payment. Whoever inherits the home inherits the mortgage too. Without a clear plan, your family may struggle to make payments during the probate wait — and the house could foreclose before it’s ever distributed.
3. Joint tenancy isn’t a substitute for a trust
If you’re married and both names are on the deed, the survivor inherits automatically — for the first death. But when the survivor dies, the home still goes through probate. And joint tenancy has tax consequences (lost step-up in basis) that a trust avoids. Read more about joint trusts →
4. The deed is the bottleneck
Most people who do set up a trust forget to actually transfer the deed into it. The trust is useless without the deed transfer. Mantle prepares and includes the deed automatically — the only service that does.
When should you do this?
Right after closing. Once the deed is recorded in your name, the clock starts on your probate exposure. Most attorneys recommend setting up the trust within 30–90 days of closing, before life gets busy and you forget.
It takes about 30 minutes with Mantle — less time than you spent picking a mortgage lender.
What you get when you protect your home with Mantle
One all-in price (then $99/year to keep your plan current) for a complete, state-specific estate plan that includes everything you need to put your new home in a trust:
- Revocable living trust — Written to meet your state’s trust law (CA and TX)
- Pour-over will — Catches anything not in the trust, names guardians for minor children
- Property deed — Prepared and ready to record, transferring your home into the trust
- Online notarization — Included, done by licensed notary via video call
- Healthcare directive + financial POA — The rest of a complete estate plan
- Updates included — Life changes, your plan changes, no extra fees
Related reading
How to transfer your house to a trust
Step-by-step guide to the deed paperwork.
Read moreEstate planning for homeowners
Why homeowners face the highest probate exposure.
Read moreLiving trust vs will
The real difference and why homeowners usually need both.
Read moreHow to avoid probate
Five ways to keep your estate out of court.
Read moreProtect your home in 30 minutes.
Free to start. Trust, will, deed, notarization, and updates as life changes — the only service that actually finishes the job.
Begin your planFree to start. Pay only when you’re ready to sign.