Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

There are no taxes paid when property passes to an individual through the death of the prior owner. That is the one advantage of dying, you get to beat the income tax system. In general, the property will be re-assessed for property tax purposes but you can file for an exclusion for parent to child and spouse to spouse transfers. However, since the property is in Oregon ay changes in property taxes will be based upon their law. For future sales of the property, your basis [pay taxes only on amount above basis] will be the value of the property upon the death of your father.

Even though the property is in Oregon, if your father is a resident of Califoria when he dies his Will must be probated in California. Estates greater than $100,000 must be probated. The process requires that the court appoints an administrator who gets a statutory fee [% goes down as estate value goes up, but the set fee might be around $15,000-you can google the probate code for statutory fees]. That person can hire an attorney at the attorney's normal hourly rate [likely $300-350] CPA, do title searches, etc. The charges can very easily go up to $50,000 or much more.

If there are no real problems with the estate -- only you and your mother are possible heirs, no large debts, Will is very clear how property is to be split, both of you are willing to accept the terms, etc. -- the better approach is to read up on probate, then hire an attorney as a consulant so that you do not screw things up and can be sure how to handle matters, and get the court to appoint you or your mother as administrators of the estate. That might keep the expenses down to ,000 or less.

Before your father dies, if he has not already done so, all of you should read some books {Nolo Press has good publications for the general public] on estate planning and then go to an expert in the field to find out the best way to handle everythng.

California Probate Code section 10810 sets the maximum statutory fees that attorneys can charge for a probate.

I define Probate in some detail on No-Probate.com.

If you would like to discuss this matter further in a more private forum, please feel free to contact me directly at the email address provided by LawGuru or through our firm�s website located at PasadenaEstatePlanning.com

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