Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

What is your question?

If you have a grant deed to the house it is yours, but it does not get a stepped up tax basis [real property owned by a person who dies has the basis for tax purposes increased to its fair market value on the date of the person's death, so if the heirs sold the property the next day they would not have to pay any tax]. You could perhaps decline to accept the gift, as you apparently have done thus far [once you mother gave you the grant deed, if you accepted it as ownership to the property then she would not get the $750 resident owners deduction from state taxes, you would have to pay several hundred dollars in city and county transfer taxes, you assume her basis in the property for taxes, and the IRS could imput a rental value to you and tax you on wht they consider a fair rental amount on the property]. Of course, if she did not file the grant deed no one but you is aware of the situation. You need to go to a tax attorney or CPA to figure out if you can refuse the gift and if it is significantly better for you to do so and take the property under the Will--if it gives you the property.

Your promise to her as to not opening the Will was made without either one of you knowing the consequences of doing so. The Will may not be valid; it must be enitrely in her hand writing with absolutely nothing typed if she has no witnesses signing it and othrewise it must have two witnesses to her signature. You can not determine if you should or must fie for Probate without opening the Will; if assets of less than $100,000 are covered by the Will [if you accept the earlier grant deed then the house is not part of the Will as it was already disposed of] then you do not have to file for Probate. If you do or want to file for Probate, you hae to open the letter and attach it to the petition for probate; a judge will not see it for some time, and yo need to know what it says to determine who must be notified of the probate, is the Will valid, are there other documents that need to be filed, etc. Nor should you go to an attorney with an unread Will; what are you going to ask the attorney to do? Just open the envelope? Would your mother want you to pay $300-$400 just for an attorney to open an envelope, tell you what I have already said, perhaps calm you down, etc. Your mother would not have wanted you to waste yuor time and money doing that. Also, wlithout reading the Will you have no idea as to what type of attorney to see [tax, probate, real property, etc.

I hope that has answered what your questions might be. Obviously, the answers lead to other questions. If you want, you can contact me directly, and I will answer for about 15 additional minutes,without charge, your additional questions [but I would have to charge after that for my time].

I hope everything works out for the best for you.

[not proof read]