My Deceased Parents Gave Me Something Before They Passed That My Siblings Say Is Part Of the Estate

[Music] Hi this is Stuart Albertson with Albertson and Davidson and I want to talk to you about an issue that we do see from time to time called advances on inheritance and advances on inheritance are essentially a loan that mom or dad makes to one child and they don't want to be unfair in giving that loan to one of their children when they have several other children and so they basically tell the person they made the loan to well that's just kind of an advance on your inheritance so that when I die you're gonna have to take that into account based upon whatever your share of my estate is there's a real problem with advances on inheritance though because the probate code requires some technical requirements that have to be met in order to meet an advance on inheritance otherwise that payment of money from a parent to a child would be looked at as a gift and if it's a gift that makes a big difference because when the estate is distributed at the after mom and dad have passed away it'll be distributed equally between all of the children without taking into account the quote/unquote loan that was made to one of the children during lifetime so how can you tell the difference between an advance on inheritance and a gift the advance on inheritance can be proven in three primary ways there's actually a fourth way but that gets a little complicated if you really want to look into this you can go to probate Code section two one one three five California Probate Code section two one one three five and you can read how you establish an advance on inheritance they're generally the way you prove an advance on inheritance is first the trust or will terms themselves have in there saying I'm giving a hundred thousand dollar loan to my son Johnny and when I die this counts as part of his inheritance at the time he receives his ultimate distribution that's the first way that an advance on inheritance can be included and be supported by the evidence the next way you can establish an advance on inheritance is did your mom or dad have a writing outside the trustor well that simply says I hereby and making a loan to Johnny and after I die that should be considered as part of his inheritance for distribution purposes that would be the second way that you can establish an advance on inheritance the third way is you have Johnny acknowledge in a writing that he's already receiving some of his inheritance by way of a loan prior to mom and dad passing and if you have any of those three chances are you can establish an advance on inheritance as you can see this is not always easy to do and so if there is money that is given to one child a lot of money say several hundred thousands of dollars to one child and not to the other and there's nothing to establish an advance on inheritance what is the argument the child makes who received the money during life during the parents lifetime and that is it was a gift if it's a gift it won't be chargeable against their share of the estate it won't be an advance on inheritance. [Music] [Applause] [Music]