If you co-sign the loan, you make yourself liable or responsible for it--even if your mother passes away. So say that she takes out $100k and by the time she passes away, has repaid, for example, $80,000 of it: you, as cosigners, would be liable for the other $80k. Now, it is certainly possible that the bank will not come after you personally but will foreclose instead--but they would have the legal right to instead sue you for the money (or to sue you if somehow foreclosing on the home does not fully pay off the remaining balance of the loan). There is no way to "cover" yourself against this: if you cosign the loan, it is your mortgage and you are liable for it, and anything you and your mother might sign will in no way bind the bank or lender, which is not a party to that agreement.Furthermore, you will have a $100k (or whatever amount you take out) loan on your credit history, negatively impacting your ability to take a loan for yourselves, should you need one.Do not do this. Your mother has a number of very good options which you yourself laid out: sell the home, pocket the equity, and rent a new place nearby (no reason why she'd have to move far); take out a reverse mortgage; etc. Do not let her prefences make you obligate yourselves for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.