Question - do I ask accountant or lawyer? (long)

Hello all,

Maybe someone can guide me in the right directions - and if you actually know the answer I would be thrilled!

Dad put house into life estate almost 5 years ago (it as around this time, but the need deed is dated August 1, 2003) and so me and my sister equally own the house, but dad was legally allowed to live there and was paying the taxes.

In January dad got sick, diagnosed with early onset dementia, etc etc - long story short we decided to move him in with us upstate where we live and sell his house. We were able to find out we could do this as long as we had dad's OK, which we do. We all siged the real estate contract with the REA.

Now the thing is, I found this Newsday article Life Estate doesn't prevent selling a house

and it talks about how much the parent may get and how much the children get as a remainder.

How is that figured out? Well obviously we would need to know the price the house is contracted to sell for (still on the market so we don't know that yet!) but also seems that perhaps it depends on how long the parent had the house and how long the children owned the house? I can't tell. When I read the article I get that feeling.

Would an attorney know or would an accountant be able to tell me this? Of course it all depends on what price the house ends up selling for but would dad be getting for example 70% of the profit and us 30% (and then splitting that between the two of us) or vice versa or something long those lines? That is what I am wondering.

I have a call into our accountant but being that it's less then 5 days to tax filing deadline I know he's super super busy and may not get back to me until next week. If I knew it was something an attorney (would it be a RE atty or eldercare atty?) could answer I'd probably get it faster. Any advice appreciated, sorry so long!
Mary

Re: Question - do I ask accountant or lawyer? (long)

I would think an Eldercare Attny would have your answers.

Good luck.

Re: Question - do I ask accountant or lawyer? (long)

You need an estate planning attorney.

Re: Question - do I ask accountant or lawyer? (long)

Yeah I think so too.

I'm already bummed out by knowing I have to pay tax on whatever my share is when it sells, as it was not my principal residence for 2 out of 5 years...wah. Oh well. I didn't put any $ into the house at all so anything I get is a bonus in the first place so I shouldn't be too upset about the tax. My sister of course doesn't have to pay any tax since it was her permanent residence (and still is technically) up to November 2007. Sucks to be me.

Thanks ladies.

Re: Question - do I ask accountant or lawyer? (long)

I would contact a Trusts & Estates attorney. Did an attorney help your father set up the life estate?

Re: Question - do I ask accountant or lawyer? (long)