Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Re: wills

If you give a life estate to your child, the child can rent it out and keep the rent. But, on the death of the child, the right to possession ends, and with it the tenancy.

I assume you are talking about a life estate. Otherwise if you are talking about something like a power of attorney the answer is different.

Re: wills

You could give the parent a life estate with a remainder interest to his child.

With proper wording it can be done but I would not recommend doing it without competent legal advice.

Re: wills

sure if you want them to. are you talking about a life interest. if so, then the answer is yes.

Re: wills

As both attorneys pointed out, you can largely do whatever you want to. But you need to see an experience lawyer to figure out what is the best way to do it. You can give your children a life estate with or without the right to keep the rents, but they can not do anything that would "harm" the estate, including selling it.

You need to sit down and slowly figure out what you want the results to be. List the advantages and disadvantages of each possible approach and then speak to an attorney. The answers will also depend on how much money you have, etc. It is worth spending a few thousand dollar now instead of looking down from Heaven and seeing the infighting, anger, and waste of money caused by not doing estate planning.