Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Yes, to the extent you give her a fee simple ownership; you could give her a life estate which expires upon her death and the title goes back to you. Any such transfer also means the property will be reassessed but you can ask for a parent-child exemption to avoid that [check to be sure that you would qualify as normally is parent to child ad not child to parent] but yo might have to pay the county and city real property transfer taxes when you file the legal documents, if you do so [probably no need to file them until you try to sell the house or refinance, but the country club may demand a filed deed as proof of her having title]. Your requiring her to make a Will in which you get any fee simple interest back is risky as she can always change the Will without your knowing and your brothers may say you are getting some added advantage. Plus the country club may require proof that she lives at that address. Is all that worth the desired results?

There is a means of putting her on the title as joint tenants with right of survivorship. There will be tax to do so. This would likely avoid any claims your brothers have, if done correctly.

You are welcome to call my office at your convenience if you have any additional questions. I would suggest having this done by an attorney rather than doing it yourself.

One negative aspect to adding her name as joint tenant or otherwise is that should she require some form of Medicaid for long term care a lien for reimbursement will be placed on the property and it will need to be sold after her passing.

As you may have gathered from the previous answers, inheritance is only one of a number of very serious issues that come with deeding property to someone without payment of market value. Not yet mentioned are gift taxes on the equity in the share you would give her, and capital gains issues when the house is sold. If you really want to do this, you need to sit down with an attorney and go over all the estate and tax implications in light of your own and her current and expected financial, tax and estate situations. Otherwise you are very likely to put your foot into tax and estate issues that you can expect to cost you in the tens of thousands of dollars at least.