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Show t ' i I L--1 ' i ' j r v' . .. -jA. l v 'i v - i ---- -?Tr? : v.O) ' -k-v r -' J A- V! Lit r A ; ' I, r i A 01 1 Ut r A c L Oil r ASSESS DAMAGE: Local residents assess damage to the B Phillips 66 station which burned last week in Beaver. v. The Beaver firemen are still pouring water on one corner that was particularly hard to extinguish. and trust officer can save your estate many problems and provide benefits for generations. been recorded by one of the children of a deceased parent and another child has object-, ed to the arrangement, feel-ine feel-ine he was left out or didn't get his proper share of the estate. The disgruntled heir takes it to court and the judge declares the transfer invalid on the grounds that there had been no delivery. There is also the risk that the "sleeping deed" may be found by the person who is eventually to receive the property upon the death of the present owner, and who prematurely has it recorded in his own name. He then becomes the legal owner and can sell the property, dis-posessing dis-posessing his father or whomever was the original owner, thus creating severe problems not foreseen or imagined by the original owner when he made out the deed in contemplation of his own death at some future date. Perhaps you are thinking: "I can trust my children to carry out my wishes. They will never quarrel with each other." Perhaps they won't. But consider the case of the great-grandfather who homesteaded a large farm ing area and gradually acquired adjoining properties. Greatgrandfather, Great-grandfather, by a "sleeping deed," deeded the property to grandfather, who was also a good farmer and added parcels and value to the estate which he deeded to grandmother in the event of his death. Because of the increased value and with in excess of three and one-half one-half million dollars, since he was only 32 years of age when he died. Investigation revealed that the transfers from great-grandfather to grandfather to grandmother and finally to grandson, the decedent had not been reported in tax returns and were all subject to tax. Estate and gift taxes were assessed, with penalties for not filing plus interest on taxes and penalties covering the past years, all of which amounted to over two and three-quarter million dollars. dol-lars. This is an extreme case, but the principle applies to all such cases,. In this case the heirs lost a family estate valued at three and one-half million dollars and received only their proportionate share of $250,000. From the above case history it is apparent that the transfer of property by "sleeping deeds" caused a severe loss to the family. Whereas, had each transfer been effected by a will or a trust and estate taxes paid at the time of each death, surviving family members would have received a considerably con-siderably larger inheritance. inher-itance. Hence we learn that relying rely-ing upon hearsay or back-fence back-fence legal advice can result in future serious con-s con-s equences, both of financial loss and unwitting violation of federal and state laws. Consulting your attorney y method for transferrin transferr-in property commonly used . jy many families in disputing dis-puting their estates, flight with danger and often resulting in serious problems, prob-lems, is the "sleeping deed" ,r the "dresser drawer ieed." A person desiring to pass lis property on to his son, lor instance, but for various reasons does not want to give it to him until the owner is dead, executes a deed to Ills son and does not record It, Then the property owner just holds the deed (perhaps In a dresser drawer, as in-J in-J dicated by the name) with the understanding that upon his (the father's) death the son will record it and the property automatically belongs be-longs to the son. By means of this "sleeping deed" the father feels that he has outwitted out-witted legal procedures and the problems connected with 'tills, tax returns :; and probate. In the first place the father fails to realize that a "sleeping "sleep-ing deed" is not a legal transfer. Secondly, by not . reporting such a gift or transfer, his estate may be subject to severe taxes and penalties which otherwise tould be avoided. To effect a valid transfer if real property there must le, first, a deed PROPERLY 1CKN0WLEDGED. Secondly, Second-ly, there must be a DE -IIVERY of the deed. With a "sleeping deed" there is no delivery and it can be declared de-clared invalid by a court. There are many cases 'here a "sleeping deed" has some knowledge of advance planning, grandmother arranged ar-ranged for the transfer of the estate to a" grandson, since she has no surviving children. Upon the grandson's death the property became subject to the terms of his will and the executor filed a federal estate tax return. As all estate tax returns are sub-j sub-j ect to audit by tax exam iner s of the U.S. Treasury, the examiner in this case became curious as to how the grandson had acquired such a large estate valued |
