quitclaim - beneficiary deed

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My husbands mother just recently passed away. She had filed a beneficiary deed leaving her farm to him and his older sister in 1999. In 2000, she filed a quitclaim deed that states "remise, release and forever quitclaim to the trust of JRE (grantee) as trustee... is this saying that the farm will not be included in the division of property in the Trust (aka will)?

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Wouldn't a quitclaim be required to remove the farm from the Trust and still have the rest of the property divided between 5 people?
Seems to me that this has to be the way to do it and that my husband will still be recieving the property with his sister. Please advise if I'm not thinking correctly... thanks

larry · Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 3328 473.51 Dollars($)

Hi debby.

Welcome to the forum.

The Beneficiary deed is mainly used to avoid probate. Even after using the Beneficiary deed, the original owner remains the owner of the property and he/she can do what even he/she pleases. But after filing a quitclaim deed the grantor loses his/her ownership. So as your mother in law has quitclaimed the property to the trust, the Beneficiary deed will not be effective here. But state law differs from one state to another. So I would suggest you consult with a local attorney on this regard.

Best of luck,
Larry

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Yea, I was sadly mistaken. It is such a shock to see this type of thing in action. His mom had told him and given him proof that he would inherit the farm with one sister. She let him invest in the farm for all these years. He was the only one of the siblings to work the farm. In fact one sibling totally discarded the entire family for 23 years. He is very distraught now since his brother who has not spent more then a total of 2 hours with his mother will now inherit exactly as much as him, who has invested everything he had into making this farm work. Just so they will have a decent place to play I guess. Unfortunatly, he will not be able to work the farm as he had fully intended, especially since he will be disabled for the rest of his life and unable to support himself without it. She never told him that she had changed the deed, she just let him continue to believe that he was building it into something. I only knew her for a few years, but I was also quite shocked and disappointed to discover this side of her. I would have never thought she would intentionally do such a thing. We will probably just sell everything and move somewhere else. Hes not real interested in being here so everyone can "gloat" over how much more she loved them. Especially the brother who never lifted a finger to help her, only caused all that pain. Not really anything you can ever really get over, you know. I guess it was just wishful thinking on my part. Thanks for giving out some good clarity. Sometimes things just seem too cloudy to actually believe.
But thanks for your help.

jameshogg · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:07 am Post subject: RE:

Hi Debby,

What I can understand from your situation is, after executing the beneficiary deed, your mother-in-law has actually quitclaimed the farm to a trust. So, if your husband is not the beneficiary of whatever property the trust holds, then he won't have a share of interest in the farm.

Thanks

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