Posted by John Merchant on September 04, 2008 at 14:05:57:
My first question would be whether ANY deed or RE conveyance now by your Mom would be valid, as she may or may not currently be legally competent to execute any legal document.
Even if you and she decided it’d be best for her to execute a Last Will and Testament now, again, her legal competency is at issue.
Probably at this stage of her life, if her lawyer would vouch for her legal competency, it’d be most practical for her to deed her house to her own Living Trust, having her be the primary beneficiary of that trust during her lifetime, then having her heirs become surviving beneficiaries of that Trust.
This way, there’d be a deed now to that trust, but another deed wouldn’t be needed until house was sold, after her demise by that trust.
On the mental competency issue, I won’t take a deed or any legal doc from anybody that age w/o his own lawyer stating in writing that his client is legally competent and knows what he/she owns and is doing.