Can anyone advise if it is wise to put both husband and wifes name on the aircraft title or perhaps just one to try to protect ones self in chance of a accident and law suit?
Thanks
You are posting in the public section of the forums. Almost all of the people who might reply would be COPA members who are required to disclose their identity. You are asking a question for what amounts to legal advice. Legal advice can possibly have liability that goes with it.
For these reasons, I think it is unlikely you will get meaningful advice from a member who has to reveal his identity when you post anonymously on a public forum as you have done. It would be better to become a member – and be bound by the member agreements – so you can ask questions like this on the private member forums.
No problem and fully understood.
Jim;
I’m going to jump in here because I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night and am pretty damn smart on this subject.
That said, the question comes up often and deserves a public answer, although not the answer requested.
Bandit asks for “legal” advise about
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buying an aircraft
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and the consequences of how title is, or should be held.
Presumably, Bandit is a high net worth individual who works hard and seeks appropriate advice in complexities of the purchase.
So let me answer it.
Bandit. Other that your home, the purchase of an aircraft is probably the largest purchase of your life; perhaps even more expensive than your home.
DO NOT except a response from anyone except the most highly trained individuals; your entire worth may depend upon the answer.
Would you ask dear Abby for surgical advice? Did you get your pilots license from a driving school? Will you send your $100k to Nigeria as requested by an e-mail without knowing the sender?
PLEASE seek properly trained guidance. Whether you chose to become a member or not, I hate to see you make a decision for the wrong reasons.
Translation: call an attorney and don’t be a cheap bastard.
Let the answers roll in brother - this is to good to pass up with such honest sincere folks reading the posts - great bunch of members thats for sure with talent too. Thanks and no moderators that is the real funny part.
I don’t think the majority of aircraft owners even have their own name on the title let alone a spouse.
Funnily enough, just this question was just asked within the member forums, and got a bunch of useful responses. If you do become a member, you can find it here.
I appricate the those that responded like grown ups. I notice the forum folks that are mebersa all come here to tell those looking in to join ?? Why have a free public area if those them jopined/paid come here and post such responses I know I can join any time but with such nasty postings by members it just tells me this is just a bunch of folks that are nasty and not worth bothering with .
Curtis thanks for the last post - shows it was not a stupid question - sure the question is asking for opinions and everyone has one but so what let them roll in and as far as the lawyer that took the time to post a cartoon - u are the reason I dont go to one as all u want is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and then the advise is ___________________ - hope u felt good posting that cartoon - must have felt good.
Hi Bandit: no need to get your panty’s all tightened up. [:D] It is the way Dennis and some get there point across, we members are are used to it and have learned to like it. It keeps the liter side up. Im just a construction grunt. But I think it is hard to protect our selfs form the bad guys trying to get our stuff. I have never put my wife on my airplane paper work. Have great day. Don
Members who post here will naturally advise you to join because they know where all the information is and they know the price is very low for you to get access. It is not just trying get $65 from you, although every little bit helps. As to “why have a free public area” I would say there are two reasons. First, it is a good place for people to ask questions about COPA if they are considering joining. Second, people are free (pun) to post here about aviation matters, as long as they realize they will depending mostly on a handful of other possibly-anonymous people who also may read the guest forum.
COPA is such a bargain in so many ways, you’ll just have to accept that the membership evangelism has to be expected. Any large group will have some less-than-gracious individuals. I can assure you they are the exception and not the rule. By far.
I’m truly sorry Bandit that you don’t get it. The advice you request while appearing simple, is highly technical and does not have a simple answer. The welfare of your family may depend upon the advice you get. It requires an understanding of your goals, you financial situation, the state in which you live and other variables.
And I notice that you state that us lawyers only want money . . . Well Bandit. We all work for a living. Doctors give medical advice, mechanics give mechanical advice, and lawyers give legal advice. The cartoon is a merely illustrative of my point which simply was, why go to a hospital if you are getting your answers from the internet? Which will you trust.
If you are serious about a question, don’t disrespect the response. Even among members, we all take every response with a grain of salt and BTW, there are about 3,500 of us who share where we can, but still seek out our respective professionals in the field of concern.
Don
Thanks for your honest reply. That is all I was looking for. As to the others LOLOOL. This is some site - free general public area and all the members come here to bash those that are not members yet. Why bother stay on the proivate site and enjoy looking at your selfs.
I have looked through this little thread. I see several posts from members who were trying to be helpful to you. They took their time to try to help while identifying themselves, even though you choose to post anonymously. I haven’t seen any bashing, except maybe a joke. You would have to be pretty thin-skinned to take that seriously.
Anyway, all you have accomplished here is to send the message to a few members that it serves no purpose to read the Guest forum or try to help. Too bad. For myself, I will continue to read and try to help, but only if a Guest identifies himself. The lesson I’ve learned here that people who hide their identity probably aren’t worth the trouble. Good luck.
Bandit1,
Edited to correct errors…
As an officer in COPA, I think I need to set a couple of things straight:
- We do not intend, nor did we design our website, for the public use area of our website to be a long term resource. It is true nothing prevents that. You have been a member for 8 years. It was not put there nor designed for what you apparently want to use it for.
- We require our members to not be anonymous, it is in our rules and this has been pointed out to you before. You specifically declined that in the past. Looks like you have done that, thank you. Welcome aboard.
We are people that are passionate about flying in general and about Cirrus Aircraft in particular. The public area allows us to attract like minded members who join the organization to learn and contribute in a vibrant forum. It is a recruiting tool, don’t be shocked we actually use it for that. Not everything is perfect here in COPALand and we do squabble some, but many of us find more value, way more, than our 65 dollar membership costs. Much of the value comes from the protected areas with literally many 10’s of thousands of solid informational posts about flying and maintaining these wonderful aircraft. We run safety oriented proficient pilots programs, critical decision making and partners in command type of training classes. That is what we are about, not a Yahoo chat room. There are other better websites to join to get your questions answered. But if you want to operate a Cirrus this is the place to be.
Please join us, by all means. We can use all the intelligent participation anyone can offer. And we think we have much to offer in return, particularly for folks flying or interested in buying a Cirrus.
Thank you.
Roger Whittier
Vice President and Board Member
And frequent poster with almost 8000 posts over 12 years.
My experience/advice (CA resident) is that it doesn’t really matter … You or your estate will be sued if you mess up. A LLC generally seems helpful for tax purposes only. There is no way I could find to eliminate the risk of getting sued. I could see no advantage to adding the wife to the title except so I left her off.
As others have “eloquently” said some good legal advice regarding how u structure this asset may be worthwhile.
This forum has tons of great information and colorful characters hope u join up and participate.
Mr bandit1,
My first question to the COPA family was right here on on the guest forum back in August. I was given plenty of good answers along with the regular prodding to join COPA. The COPA community wants nothing more than to help fellow/perspective Cirrus owners. You just happened to ask a question that people are reluctant to answer on this public forum. I would guess that, as a member, you would have offers of private phone calls from those that are in the know to try to give you some good advice.
I swear I got my $65.00 worth in about 10 minutes!
You will notice that we don’t hide behind screen names. If we talk harshly or matter-of-factly (which members do regularly on the private site - so don’t feel special here!) everyone knows who we are. Some people are more eloquent than other but the goal is always the same…make the members the very best they can be. As Steve Martin once said “Some people have a way with words and others …um…not have way.” relax, have some pie and join COPA. Really. You wont regret it.
Can I assume that you are getting ready to buy your first plane? Is it a Cirrus?
Tony
tips are for bartenders.
Actually I need to clarify that for the members’ benefit. When a non-member or guest views the Public Access Forums they will not see the ‘real names’, but will see screen names instead. Members viewing the same forum see real names. However, the visitors will see whatever you have placed into your signature, and of course what is in the message. That information will be indexed by Google and the other ‘bots. The content on the Members’ side is not viewable to the search engines.
Curtis,
Thanks! I did not know that!
So let me refraise that. Mr. Bandit1, when you join COPA you’ll get to know exactly which one of us S.O.B.'s it is by our real neme! 
Come to the dark side. Join us young Bandit1. It is your destiny!
Tony