California Estate Planning Legal Questions

If the court has appointed you then your title is administrator or estate representative [trustee is for trusts]. If you are only named in the Will but not yet appointed by the probate Court you have very little power to do anything. Assuming your brother is not paying any rent, you should give him a thirty day notice of eviction, as he is too arrogant. He does not own or rent the house and has no right to change the locks, let alone not give you a key. He will be a major pain in the neck and you will not be able to work out any settlement.... Read More

1. Living will is a term which generally means end-of-life wishes. 2. If you mean that she has a trust, yes, you could take title as joint tenants, with Mom, as trustee, owner of an undivided interest. However, this may become awkward upon death of one of you, as the decedent's share would go to the surviving joint tenant. Is that the intent?... Read More

You need to keep looking for an attorney in your area or nearby who will handle the case. The question is whether you reasonably should have known about the fraud and her breach of the Trust before you did find out. That is a factual issue which would be decided by a judge or jury and not on a motion by your sister. ?Since an attorney who represents you might receive a sizable attorney fee if the case is handled on a contingency fee basis, I would think you should be able to find an attorney who handles contract litigation cases. Go to your local county bar association to see if they have a lawyer referral panel. ?It will be a difficult case because you may need a handwriting expert to prove the forgery, etc. Good luck.... Read More

I am not sure everything has been legally done as you presume. Even if all the other beneficiaries have formally rejected their right to receive a portion of the property, the trust, assuming it is a revocable one, must first be revoked for the property title to be passed pursuant as to probate. That does not require paperwork filed with the State, but the passage of title from the Trust to him must be recorded. He does not have to go there; prepare the paperwork yourself, give it to him, and record it yourself. There may be reasons other than not wanted to make the trip that he has to not transfer title.... Read More

Change the locks, send him a bill for the new locks, tell him he must return all the items as legally you are responsible that the assets remain in the Trust and by law, so that you personally do not have to pay for what he took, you would be obligated to report him to the police for theft, and civilly sue him, along with reducing by a like value whatever he has taken from what ever he is eventually supposed to get from the Trust. That your minor daughter, when she reaches 18, will be very upset that he stole from her and will be entitled to sue him, using a high estimate of the value of the assets taken plus interest at 7%. He knows what he is doing is entirely wrong and I am sure you have told him several times, so the only way to stop him is to take harsh action. When there has been a death of one's parents one or more children often try to take advantage of the nice kid in the family. Unfortunately, I know from personal experience. If you are not harsh, he will keep doing this and your daughter will get mad at you and it is making her life harder than it should be. I suspect you will actually have to file suit [there are forms from the court and on the web you can use it is relatively simple and you may not need an attorney, but if you sue for conversion you could claim attorney fees although the one time I did the judge rejected that but did award my client a nice sum for the trouble caused her]. Good luck.... Read More

He is a guest, so tell him he has X number of days to take his belongings and leave. ?If he will not, you will call the police to oust him [they probably will not as they will say it is a civil matter, but they may arrest him as to the drugs and chemicals]. You could also try to get him committed for psychiatric evaluation as he certainly seems mental unbalanced. He will probably not be willing to leave. You may also have to give him a three day notice and file suit for eviction so you can get the sheriff to evict him. If he destroys any more property, report him to the police for such damage, as then they may take some action.... Read More

The property will go equally to each of the seven children but to transfer title it must go through probate. Depending on the value of all the assets, you might be able to use the faster small probate procedures. She could set up a trust leaving the property equally to all the children upon her death, but title to the house must be transferred to the Trust. If that is really the only asset, you might be able to do it yourself, but you should first spend several hundred dollars to speak with a trust and probate attorney to find out what the tax consequence is.... Read More

You are asking if somehow you can nullify the transfer of the house to your stepmother. If your father was mentally sound [and pocketed a large commission for the sale which only required him to quit claim his interest], I doubt you can do anything. He had a right to do anything with his property that he wanted to do.... Read More