Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Living Trust vs Quick Deed

The best option depends on the facts. Our CA attorey can go over the options and take care of your needs for a reasonable fee.

Re: Living Trust vs Quick Deed

By "quick deed," I assume you mean quitclaim. A quitclaim deed is one of the two common types of deeds used to transfer real property under ordinary (voluntary) circumstances, the other being the grant deed. The main difference is that the grant deed also conveys a warranty of title while a quitclaim deed merely surrenders whatever title you have, be it good, imperfect, or none at all.

In most cases, it would be unwise to deed the property over; almost always there are sound reasons NOT to do so.

Deeding property to prospective heirs as a gift has a very adverse tax impact, because the old tax basis is carried forward, while inherited property (whether by will or trust) takes its tax base value on the day it is inherited - and this higher base value means a smaller taxable gain with the property is eventually sold.

Also, sometimes families try to avoid possible demands for reimbursement of MediCal for nursing-home care by taking assets out of the ownership of the MediCal beneficiary. Such transfers are fraudulent and can be un-done to everyone's loss. Doubt this is a consideration here, but other people read these postings.

One other factor may cut the other way. If mom moves into assisted living and her house is still in her trust, there may be a question as to who will live there and take care of it. Someone may have to step into the role of landlord, or at least turn the property over to a trustworthy property management firm to get sone income from it and take care of it.