Holding a title to property can have some legal and tax consequences which need to be investigated before you take out the policy. This is especially true if you take out the policy with another person. It's in your best interest to consult an attorney who specializes in estate planning. Consulting a tax advisor might also be in your best interest.

If you intend to co-purchase the property with another person or persons, the title insurance can become slightly complicated. There can be serveral optionial ways to hold title insurance depending on the situation of all involved parties.

If you elect to hold the policy under a "Joint Tenancy" option, all parties shall hold an equal interest in the property. Provided all parties retain their ownership until death, ownership interest passes to the remaining surviving parties, and the last surviving owner will be the sole owner of the property. This is known as the "Right of Survivorship".

Another option would be to hold the policy under "Tenancy in Common". With this type of policy, the tenants can hold an equal share of ownership, or an unequal interst in the property. The individual owners can sell or transfer their ownership of the property to another third party without the consent of the other co-owners. With this policy, (provided all parties retain ownership until death), ownership interest would be passed to said owners heirs and not to the surviving owners.

Community property states have a different approach to ownership upon death. Upon death, half of the deceased owners' interest goes to the remaining co-owners while the remaining half goes to the heirs of the deceased owner. This type of policy is subject to court approval and administration. Currently, the states that support this type of community property are Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington, and Wisconsin.