Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Re: Wills

A Will distributes only that which exists in the estate at the time of death. So if you transfer 50% ownership of the house to your daughter now and do not change your Will, upon your death your 50% of the house would go to the children and your daughter would keep her 50% and get whatever percentage she is entitled to as being one of the children [so if you have four children, she would have 50% plus 1/4 of the other 50% or a total of 62.5%]. You do not have to change your Will; if you want your daughter to only keep the 50% you have given her now and not get the additional 12.5%, then you need to add an amendment to the Will, called a codical, iln which you state because you gave her 50% while you were alive on your death the three other children will each split the remaining 50% equally among themselves [you must also deal with the question of what happens if one of the children should die before you; do the surviving children split up that remaining part among themselves or does 1/3 go to the heirs of the deceased child, etc. You need to state the existence of the prior Will and that you are changing only the terms as stated in the amendment. You need to have everything, including the date, all in your own hand writing or if anything is typed or part of a printed form you need two witnesses to your signing the amendment.

You also need to review all the prior answers the attorneys on this site have given as to why it is a bad idea to give any part of your house to your daughter. Almost all attorneys advise people against doing so.

Re: Wills

you should consult a qualified estate planning attorney who is also fully conversant with income, estate and gift taxation to determine the best method to accomplish your goals. otherwise, any action you take is likely to have unexpected (and perhaps undesirable) consequences which may not be possible to correct.