I think for rental properties it’s different than for the primary home. If it’s the primary home, the first 250k (500k for married couples) if various conditions are met are tax free.
For investment properties if he had a lot of losses last year and his income is low, then it may be a good time to sell because there would be some offset of the capital gains. There are also a lot of deductions that you can take against the gains. But the bottom line is you should discuss the best planning strategies here with the attorney because they may be able to get a stepped up basis for tax planning if the daughter’s are going to inherit it anyway.
If a trust is split into separate trusts and has intangible property in it, the intangible property can still stay in it. If done correctly, each trust would have more than one trustee and one of the trustees would be common to all the separate trusts. If one party doesn’t want to keep the intangible asset then they need to be bought out. It can be messy, but it is fairly common.
I don’t think we will have a squabble when my parents are gone, but my SIL has already said that she and my brother want my parents house since they would like to live in Southern California again one day. The house is split between myself and my 2 brothers in my parents will. I am the executor. I have no problem with my brother and SIL buying my other brother and I out of the house. They just have to understand that is how it will work and that they won’t just get to move in and pay rent to my other brother and myself. My mom has never cared for my SIL which is the main reason that my parents will is made out so that none of our spouses inherit if my parents children are not alive and the estate then passes to the grandchildren.
My mom loves my H and her other DIL and would have no problem if they were to inherit. I told her and my dad when they made the decision to have everything go to the grandchildren if one of their children was not alive that I thought it was a good call.
My H’s cousin inherited a sizable amount when his mom died. However, the estate hadn’t been completely settled when he died. I have wondered how that worked … if the cousin’s wife actually got the inheritance. I would never ask, and it hasn’t been discussed, but I wonder just the same. (She does have two children, so it could have gone to them, but it was so far along that I am not sure how it actually ended.)
I have no idea how my parents are leaving any assets which may remain after mom dies. Honestly it will likely not be much as she’s in her 90s and physically very healthy.
When each brother had been married about 25 years and we all felt confident it would continue, my DH suggested, at a time FIL was updating things anyway, that they ought to leave each share to the child and/spouse and trust the spouses to do the right thing. That never arose and, for now, our stuff is per stirpes, so to the grandkids if the child is dead, but it is an interesting conundrum if someone were to plan on using an inheritance for retirement. Though that is a darned risky plan given the costs of end of life assistance.
My spouse thinks that if he dies before his parents, I will inherit his half of their estate. (I think he thinks it is set up this way because that if my FIL dies before MIL, MIL inherits FIL’s part of his family trust. They have been married over 50 years so I think she should!)
So maybe my in-laws have set up it up in a similar fashion for their kids-in-law, but we don’t know. They love their kids-in-laws. But they could easily have it set up to go to the grandkids, which is fine.
I am a firm believer in not trusting the spouse to do the right thing. Some women become a target for gold diggers, and vice versa.
Biggest and toughest lesson learned was from a formerly close friend. After her husband died, her alcohol problem increased substantially. (Not showering, not food shopping, letting house go, got rid of pest control man, housekeeper, etc). She was drunk at her son’s law school graduation and made a scene. She retaliated against her children, cancelling their health insurance and basically throwing out their belongings. Her husband, a lawyer, would never have imagined the change in her. She had been a devoted mother, but she became nasty. So, her children, who had grown up in luxury, where now left without a penny from a large estate.
I’m not a lawyer, but I’d make sure the spouse was left @half, and the children their own $.
I know for a fact that my in laws have it set up for the share to go to the grandkids if one of their kids dies. My parents did, as well. My brother died without an estate, and his siblings were next of kin. The three surviving siblings each got a quarter of the estate, with the remaining quarter going to another deceased brother’s D (she got lucky, since she cut all of us out of her life after her dad died). I think that’s probably the default for most typical estates??
I’m at my mom’s cleaning out stuff of my dad’s, and all this talk is making my stomach hurt. We are down to some brass-tacks stuff involving thousands of dollars, and I don’t want any conflict.
H and I leaving all to the survivor and then giving the rest to our kids. If either of us remarried, I believe both of us would still like residue to go to our kids rather than 2nd spouse or kids of 2nd spouse.
If you want to be positive but I’m fine with us just trusting one another, naive as that is. I’m likely to be the survivor, as I’m substantially younger than H. My family lives a long time (think another 40+ years), so there may well be no residue.
If one of you dies and the other remarried - yes, you trust the survivor to set it up so the kids get the money vs the 2nd spouse. They just gotta set it up!
The kids may care more about losing their loving mother and having to deal with her new nastiness compared to any possible inheritance from the estate.
Yes, it should be stated if your estate should go to your kids rather than a second spouse/their children. Trust is fine, but it means nothing in court. The surviving spouse could remarry and forget to change the will or even not get around to it.
UCB, I was stunned by what she said to her children. Her phone was open to one of our mutual friends. This friend took the 3 into her home, until they could find a place. We helped with security deposit. One had to leave school cuz of $ I spent a day in her house packing up the kids belongings, while she was throwing junk into the truck. I was allowed into her house cuz I had been buying her groceries for some time. The words she said to her children were horrendous