Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Re: joint house deed and death

It might. If your father put you on the deed for the purpose of giving you the house at the time of his death, and not for the purpose of giving you a present 1/2 ownership of the house, then it is possible to set the deed aside and the house will go into your father's probate estate. If that is the case, there are better ways to accomplish this that will not leave that potential residual problem.

I would consult an estate planning attorney and spend a few hundred dollarst to take care of this properly. Of if you prefer, I suggest you get and read my book "How You Can Protect Your Loved Ones in the Event of Death or Disability (Without Paying a Legal Fees}" Not only does it explain virtually everything you need to know in plain English, but it covers the specific situation you describe. And it contains in the Appendix a copy of the Legacy Living Trust Package. This is a complete trust package for the Middle Class including a Living trust for single or for married people, a durable general power of attorney, an advance healthcare directive, an Abstract of Trust, all necessary transfer documents and instructions. Having taught literally hundreds of seminars to thousand of regular middle class people, I have learned how to answer the most important questions in language understandable to all. Having learned over 30 years that most people that go to an attorney to pay $1200 or more for these documents don't understand the language in the unnecessarily complicated documents, don't understand what they are doing and why, and ofen make common but avoidable mistakes, I created the Legacy Living Trust Package.

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Again, the book is, to my knowledge, the only one written for regular people in the middle class, and it contains in an appendix the Legacy Living Trust Package, which to my knowledge is the only complete fill-in the blanks trust package written in simple English ("People Ease", not "Legalese") that will be valid in every State in the US.