Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Living Trust
After my mother died, my father put his house into a living trust for my brother and me. He has since remarried and has changed nothing in his will or living trust. Does his new wife have any legal claim on his house if she is living there, when he dies?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Living Trust
Your dad can change any terms of the trust, as he pleases, and the wife may, if there is community funds being used to pay for or upkeep the house, acquire an interest in the house. She can waive any such interest with a transmutation agreement. Many lawyers might suggest a quit claim deed from the new wife is adequate, but I think not, since it would only transfer any interst she might have in the house up to the date of the deed, not as may afterwards be acquired.