My fiancé and his brother are dividing a couple of properties from their mother's estate. She passed away 6 years ago and they did probate the will during that timeframe. They are trying to establish the best way to divide the property at this time with as little tax penalties as possible. Which would be the most cost efficient route to go, Quit Claim Deed or Deed of Gift?

The clerk at the county appraisers office told us the easiest way to handle this would be to do a Deed of Gift. But a lawyer is saying otherwise and of course this will cost us much more money.

Do they need a lawyer? A CPA? A notary?

This is located in Virginia

Thanks!

How were these properties listed in the will. There should be no gift involved, it should be a distribution of the estate. Who is the executor?

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

How were these properties listed in the will. There should be no gift involved, it should be a distribution of the estate. Who is the executor?

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The properties were listed in both the men's names. Each are executors.

That doesn't answer what I asked. How were the properties listed in the WILL? Were they bequested to them jointly? Also what do they plan on doing with the properties? Will they sell them or what? Do they have appraisals of each property?

There were no specifics in the will. Just that the property will be equally divided amongst the two sons.

They wish to change the title over to individual names instead of "the estate of"

Yes during probate the properties would have been divided as per the will, and at that time during probate the judge would have had the properties transferred and titled as per the instructions of the will.

If that is done and over 6 years ago, and the probate put the properties into each of their names ( then probate and wills have nothing to do with this any longer) you merely have two men who own property jointly who own property jointly and wish to divide the properties between them.

If each is going to take certain parts, and keep certain parts, there is no gift involvled, they are merely dividing their own property. ( no gain of value and no gift)

Also I don't understand why you say that a quitclaim deed would be more costly?

If there are separate properties each with its own deed, and they merely are putting one name on one, and another name on the other, this is verry simple. If there is one property, and it is being subdivided into half, then it is harder.

You need to provide a lot more detail.

But if you just have two deeds with both names for two properrties, and they want to take one name off each, that can be done by a title company for little cost on a quitclaim deed.

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Originally Posted by NoDumBlon

There were no specifics in the will. Just that the property will be equally divided amongst the two sons.

They wish to change the title over to individual names instead of "the estate of"

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Ok, So the probate process changed the deeds to noted as owned by "the Estate of..." Since they are both executors, they have the POA for the estate to issue quit claim deeds from the estate to their names. That is the way to go.

However, there is a slight complication if they are dividing the properties among them. Lets say there are 5 properties and each brother is supposed to get half, well you have to get apprasials of all the properties and then the brothers have to agree (I would suggest they do this in writing) who gets what properties. So lets say properties 1-3 are smaller and of less value and 4-5 are larger so they roughly equal the other three. Then one brother gets the 3 smaller ones and the other the 2 larger ones.

If they are still going to own all properties jointly, then no problem.

We were told the Quit Claim Deed required a lawyer to file. A Deed of Gift does not. But both get the same results when filing with the Clerk of Court for the county.

There is no gift here. So whoever is telling you that doesn't know what they are talking about. A Quit Claim does NOT require a lawyer, though it's a good idea to use one. You can also use a Title company. It shouldn't be expensive. but if you want to sell the property without the title coming into question, you want to make sure its done right.