My father owned his home. He then created a valid revocable living trust in which he served as trustee. He then transferred his home from himself as an individual to himself as trustee of his trust. Up to this point I'm told everything is perfectly legal and the home is considered to be held in his trust. Years later he signed a quit claim deed as an individual (not as trustee of the trust) to me. Under California law is the deed valid or is it invalid or meaningless given that he didn't sign as trustee? Any legal authority on this topic?

I'm getting conflict information on this. I've heard it's meaningless as he didn't hold any interest as an individual and I've also heard this is considered a minor defect and as he had authority to sign as trustee that his signing as an individual will be presummed to mean it was signed as trustee.

I don't understand why he didn't sign it over to the trust rather then himself as trustee. That makes no sense to me. The trust should have been the owner not the trustee.

That's why I question this whole thing. My best guess is the original transfer was invalid so he still owned the property as an individual making the transfer to you valid.

No the original transfer deed to the trust is valid. Apparently in California when you deed property to a trust you deed it to "XXX, as Trustee of the YYY Trust". There is no question about the transfer to the Trust.

Depends on the circumstances. If it can be proven that he intended to transfer it as trustee, it is probably a valid transfer.