Life Estate

[Ranman]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

My mother passed away 14 years ago. In her will she left her home to her 4 surviving children who included my brother, two sisters and me. She also included a life estate clause in her will to one daughter. She had been living in the home for the last 10 years and has just recently passed away this year. I realize that the life estate ended with her death, my question is does her estate still have any interest in the home that will go to her heirs or did this interest end at her death?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

My mother passed away 14 years ago. In her will she left her home to her 4 surviving children who included my brother, two sisters and me. She also included a life estate clause in her will to one daughter. She had been living in the home for the last 10 years and has just recently passed away this year. I realize that the life estate ended with her death, my question is does her estate still have any interest in the home that will go to her heirs or did this interest end at her death?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

**A: based on your post, her estate has had interest in the property from 14 years ago and still does. The life estate interest has been extinguished by virtue of the daughters death and her heirs do not have any interest in the property with respect to the life estate but do have interest as a beneficiary of her estate, provided this daughter was named in the will as a beneficiary.
What is the status of probate for both mother first and now daughter?

 

[tranquility]

The estate is still open?

How can this be?

The deed should have reflected a distribution long ago with the beneficiaries as the owners and sister with a life estate. That it seems it was not done makes me think an attorney has to get involved here.

Who was the administrator? Maybe you can see if they will pony up the money to fix this foul-up.

 

[Ranman]

**A: based on your post, her estate has had interest in the property from 14 years ago and still does. The life estate interest has been extinguished by virtue of the daughters death and her heirs do not have any interest in the property with respect to the life estate but do have interest as a beneficiary of her estate, provided this daughter was named in the will as a beneficiary.
What is the status of probate for both mother first and now daughter?

Probate was never enterd.

 

[anteater]

Probate was never enterd.

Just for absolute clarity because you used a lot of "her's" in your initial post without being clear on whether "her" referred to the mother or the daughter...

Mother's will was never probated? If one checked the most recent deed, it would say that the property still belonged to Mother? Mother's will stated that the deceased daughter had a remainder interest in the property in addition to a life estate?

If so, there is some work to do. But the deceased daughter's remainder interest does not just go away.

 

[tranquility]

Probate was never enterd.

Genius. Who decided this? Who has possession of the will?

My goodness. I don't know how much the house is worth, but it is going to cost a bunch, up front, to get control of it.

 

[Ranman]

Just for absolute clarity because you used a lot of "her's" in your initial post without being clear on whether "her" referred to the mother or the daughter...

Mother's will was never probated? If one checked the most recent deed, it would say that the property still belonged to Mother? Mother's will stated that the deceased daughter had a remainder interest in the property in addition to a life estate?

If so, there is some work to do. But the deceased daughter's remainder interest does not just go away.

Mother's Will was never probated is correct. Most recent deed has a quit claim attached from mother as Grantor and all 4 children as Grantee. This includes the daughter that has the Life Estate listed in the Will. The wording on Mothers Will states nothing about any remainder interest in the property, only that the daughter is reserved a Life Estate in the home.

 

[tranquility]

The will of mother has nothing to do with it then. (Even though you first wrote it passed by will.) The property passed on the delivery of the quit claim. There never was a life estate on the property. Mom did not own it at death.

Now, unless the property was held with right of survivorship, sister's portion is in her estate. How that passes depends on if she has a will/trust or if it passes by intestate succession.

The new fact added by the OP above, is completely contradictory to the previous facts given. It changes everything. That's why we so often say to see an attorney. Not just because of the need to special knowledge, but because they can review the actual documentation rather than rely on the representations of the client of what things mean.

 

[HomeGuru]

Mother's Will was never probated is correct. Most recent deed has a quit claim attached from mother as Grantor and all 4 children as Grantee. This includes the daughter that has the Life Estate listed in the Will. The wording on Mothers Will states nothing about any remainder interest in the property, only that the daughter is reserved a Life Estate in the home.

**A: and why did you not tell us this information from the start. Now that changes things since due to the quit claim deed, the property does not go through probate. and the daughter that had the life estate interest in the property was an owner of the property (say 25% interest unless the deed states otherwise). I say was because her 25% interest now belongs to her estate.
Now going back to your initial question, someone will get her interest but the answer cannot be told yet. It would depend upon the tenancy as listed in the quit claim deed. If joint tenancy, her interest would go to the remaining tenants (the other three children), if the tenancy was tenants in common, only then will her interest go from the estate to her heirs and in such order pursuant to Michigan law or as dictated in her will.

 

[Ranman]

**A: and why did you not tell us this information from the start. Now that changes things since due to the quit claim deed, the property does not go through probate. and the daughter that had the life estate interest in the property was an owner of the property (say 25% interest unless the deed states otherwise). I say was because her 25% interest now belongs to her estate.
Now going back to your initial question, someone will get her interest but the answer cannot be told yet. It would depend upon the tenancy as listed in the quit claim deed. If joint tenancy, her interest would go to the remaining tenants (the other three children), if the tenancy was tenants in common, only then will her interest go from the estate to her heirs and in such order pursuant to Michigan law or as dictated in her will.

On the quit claim deed it was listed as joint tenancy. So the daughter’s interest would go to the remaining tenants (the other three children). Is that correct?
I’m sorry for any confusion that I caused because of my lack of knowledge & understanding of the legal terms being used and thank all who responded.

 

[justalayman]

yes, the remaining joint tenants assume her interest. So, rather than owning 25% each, the remaining siblings own 33 1/3% each. There is nothing that passes to her heirs.