Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

I or any other attorney would need to review the deed to your parents' home and your father's will.

Your stepmother could not do anything while your father was alive if his name was on the deed unless your father gave your stepmother a power of attorney which allowed her to conduct real estate transactions on behalf of your father. If the property was conveyed during his lifetime, his willl is not relevant and the conveyance would trump the will. If you can show that the stepmother conveyed your father's interest to herself and that it was not in your father's benefit, then possibly you could bring an equitable action in this regard.

Beforee you do, other facts merit discussion. You indicate that your father passed away. How was the land deeded? Review the deed (many counties have online deeds) to see how the land was owned. If the land was owned as "Your father and your stepmother" with language indicating that they were husband and wife or joint tenants with right of survivorship, then immediately at the minute of your father's death, the land would have passed to your stepmother by operation of law. Again, his will would be irrelevant as the will only serves to convey what your father actually owned at the time of his death. Since any land owned by your father and your stepmother would have passed to your stepmother, your father did not own it when he died.

If the deed shows that the land was owned by your father and stepmother but there is no mention of them being husband and wife or the deed has the words as "tenants in common" on it, then only one-half of the land would pass to your stepmother and the other half would pass as per your father's will. However, I don't know what other assets your father had or what other assets were left to your stepmother. Each state has laws governing a spousal or elective share and provide that if the will does not make adequate provision for them, they can claim extra property from the deceased spouse's estate. Some staets provide for a certain amount; in North Carolina, for example, there is a more complicated process for determining the elective share.

There are other facts which you do not relate. Why was the home sold? Was this because money was needed to pay for your father's nursing home care and it was figured that it would be better to sell the home and use the funds rather than risk any recovery by Medicaid if your father received Medicaid funds?

Since I do not know the answer, I cannot determine whether the transfer and sale was or was not done for your father's benefit. You also do not indicate when this occurred. I suggest that you take a copy of the deed and will to a probate attorney in the county/state where your father lived at the time of his death and pay the attorney to review the documents and advise you whether the transfer was proper and whether the land was owned as a joint tenancy with right of surviviorship/tenancy by the entireties such that it would have trumped the will anyway if it had not been sold.