Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

If she deeds it only to her children, he has no right to the property as it is a separate asset of yours. If you mix community money with the property [pay taxes out of joint funds], he might be entitled to a portion as community assets. If your chilldren are minors, the Court might appoint him trustee to handle the funds.

Please have your mother see the numerous replies on this site as to why parents should not leave their property to their children before they actually die.

Brief answers, item by item:

1. Mom can deed real estate to you as a gift without your husband acquiring an interest.

2. Doing #1 is usually a BAD idea in the long run because making a gift of property before death usually has a worse tax result that passing the property upon death under a will or trust. If the concern is avoiding probate, choose a trust over a will, but don't make a gift. There are gift and capital-gains tax considerations for both mother and daughter. Get estate-planning advice.

3. Property yo receive as a gift or inheritance is and remains your separate property and not community property so long as it remains financially insulated from community property, but the marital community will a cquire an interest to the extent community funds (including either spouse's earnings during marriage) are used for expenses such as principal payments on a mortgage (if there is one).

4. Sounds as though the proposal is for each of four siblings to receive a 1/4 interest each. If so, what happens upon the death of any of them - yourself, for example - depends upon how title was taken. If the four of you acquired and held title as joint tenants, nothing would pass to any heirs; the surviving three siblings would simply now each have a 1/3 interest. If, on the other hand, the four of you held title as tenants in common, each of you is free to distribute his or her 1/4 interest to heirs by will or trust, and if neither exists, the 1/4 interest will be distributed as provided by the laws of intestate succession. Probate Code section 6401(c)(3) provides that a surviving spouse's share is 1/3 of the deceased spouse's separate property when there are two or more children of the couple, so your spouse would get 1/3 of 1/4 or a 1/12 interest if the property were a tenancy in common and you died intestate. Your kids would get the rest.

5. So, to make sure your kids get the most, you need to (a) share title with your siblings as tenants in common or outlive them as the longest-surviving joint tenant, and (b) have a will or trust of your own.

6. Also, to avoid as much taxation as possible, your mom should see an estate-planning advisor and reconsider making any inter-vivos gifts of appreciated property and instead distribute it through a living trust.