Can't Get My Family Together To Agree On A Will

Brought to you by CHM, a biblically-based alternative to health insurance. Learn more at chministries.org slash budget. In 2012, my dad passed away suddenly from cancer. And he didn't have a very concise will put together. He had directives. When he died, he was taking care of his mother, who was suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's. Six months after he died, she died. And that left everything that was supposed to go to kids and grandkids and cousins kind of up in the air. And then eventually, everything was in my aunt's name. So, yeah. So... How? How did it end up in her name? Probate? She was the... Deciding that? No, no probate. No probate. Somehow, we skated by probate. Nobody was arguing about anything. My aunt happened to be the last surviving child. And it just went everything into my aunt's name because my dad's will was not in good shape. But my grandmother was. But she died after my dad, so nothing went to him. So, I am in a position now to where, like, I'm the only person who has a steady job out of my siblings. And I'm trying to get my siblings and my cousins together because my aunt's husband is also dead. So, it's just my aunt. And she's kind of going into a little bit of a mental decline. My siblings are okay. Everybody knows who's supposed to get what. From the aunt? My cousins. Yeah, from the aunt. Because she's okay with everybody getting what they were supposed to get in the beginning. Oh, okay. Nobody's arguing about anything that they're supposed to get. But she's not put it down on her will. And there's no judge involved. Correct. So, what we've got, this is the biggest struggle, is my aunt's two children, the only bicker is over her own personal effects that she had and her husband had. How about the properties? Nothing that anything my grandmother had. They're fighting over those things. And it's making it difficult for any of the rest of us to get a regular will set up. What's the value of all of this, if you had to guess? Okay, so I'm collecting rent on two homes. There's no mortgages. Everything's paid for. There's no mortgages. I'm collecting rent on two together. They're about $375,000. Those are to become yours? Yeah. If I were in your shoes, have you sat down in person and talked to your aunt and asked her to do a will? Yes, I have. And what did she say? She is reluctant to go along with it unless her two kids agree on what is supposed to be divided, that was my aunt's and her husband's. Do either of her kids have, you said she's got mental decline, do either of them have power of attorney or is that on track to start at any point? Are the two houses that you have, are they in your name or your aunt's name? Everything's in my aunt's name. You're going to lose those. If your aunt does not leave them to you or deed them to you prior to your death, you're going to lose them because you do not have any standing in this family anymore. She has confiscated all the assets into her name. Her assets, if there is no will, will go to her children. You're going to lose these houses. And I, that, that's my struggle. No, you are. I mean, there's not a question if you don't get this done, this is a $400,000 problem for you and your brother and your sister. So if I'm you and your brother and your sister, I'm going to grab my cousins and put them in a headlock and go, all right, you twerps, we need to get this straightened out because I'm not letting you take these houses. They all need to get over there with your mama and get this written down. That's, that's what we're, we're struggling to do. Do you have like any suggestions in like how to speak to them in such a manner? Cause headlock headlocks won't work. They're a bunch of hillbillies. So we all are actually, but you know, um, I mean, I just sit down with them and go, okay, do you think it's fair that I lose these properties because you won't sit down with your mom and get this other stuff worked out? I don't think that's fair. Okay. And the other thing you could do is you could go to your aunt and ask her to quit claim the properties to you. Okay. So when, if that was to occur, would there be like a, some sort of like net gain tax? Oh yeah. No, she'll have a, she'll have a, um, uh, a gift tax on them. And well, she could actually, but she could avoid it by doing a unified estate tax planning document, but that that's, it's easier to just do a will, but, um, uh, I can, you know, there's a thing you write this down, unified estate tax. Okay. If the estate tax is still in place and Trump, the GOP is currently looking at doing away with it on the federal level. But if that's still in place, you can use up some of her estate tax exemptions, uh, by against her gift tax. So she would not have gift tax if she files that document, but I've got a feeling this bunch of people doesn't file documents. They just kind of make up whatever they want to do and think it works. So, yeah, that's their problem though. They have the gift tax, not you. So I'm going to go over there and say, auntie, here's two, uh, here's two quick claim deeds. I need you to sign these. So the properties are in my name. Okay. That's the easiest, cleanest thing you can do here. And your brothers and sisters do the same thing because I'm afraid because otherwise this is going to go to your kids. And that's not fair. I need you to sign them right now. I'm not getting up from this table until you sign these. Cause they were supposed to go to my dad and they're supposed to go to me. And you know that, and I need you to sign these, put these properties in my name. That's a, that's a one page document, a quit to claim deed, go see an attorney, have that drawn up for each property, and then, um, have a notary notarize them. And then you follow them at the courthouse and the property is then in your name. It's over now. She technically would have be due to gift tax on that. And she can avoid that within 12 months of her signing that over to you. If she files under the unified estate tax credit program. But I got a feeling this lady's not doing any of that. She doesn't. This is a lady. She's never even, I never had a job. Yeah, I know. I can tell. I mean, she, I mean, she's raised, she's raised kids. I mean, that's work too. I mean, I don't mean that she's not got any level of financial, um, sophistication. Not at all. Yeah. And so I'm like, yeah. And so you got it, you got to roll over there and you're, otherwise you're going to lose $400,000. That's the problem here. Folks in America, everybody needs oil. Hello. Everybody needs oil. If you need it, if you've got a simple estate, go to mamabearlegalforms.com. It's very inexpensive. You can have it done by morning. If you've got a complicated estate, sit down with an estate planning attorney. But everybody needs a will. It's not fair to the people. You look at what his dad and his grandmother have done to him by screwing around and not writing this stuff down. That's wrong. Y'all you need to take care of your family better than that. CHM isn't health insurance. It's a health cost-sharing ministry. Check it out for yourself at chministries.org slash budget.