Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

Condolences upon the death of your brother.

No estate tax is due. Upon his death, you and your son automatically became the sole legal owners, and your mother continued to have a life estate, if I understand your description correctly. Ownership of the house was not a part of your brother's estate upon his death. His estate will have to be administered and taxes paid, but the house is not a part of his estate.

THIS RESPONSE IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE, SINCE I DO NOT HAVE ALL OF THE INFORMATION THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED, AND I DO NOT HAVE A REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT WITH YOU.

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Attorney Jacobson is spot on. Also, your mother is still alive and is a life tenant because she has a life estate. No taxes are owed. You really do not own the property - the life tenant still does.

Think of property ownership as a bundle of 100 sticks. A property owner who conveys land but keeps a life estate is akin to giving the remaindermen (that is what you, your brother and son are) and keeping one stick (the life estate) for herself (here your mother). You will only really own the land when the life estate is extinguished by either your mother dying or by her conveying her life estate to the remaindermen during her life.

Since you state that their is a right of survivorship, that means only that last person alive gets the whole land. The share of the dead person passes automatically to the survivors by operation of law so now your mother still has her life estate and you and your son are remaindermen with a 50/50 interest instead of a 1/3rd interest.