We went through this with my parents and are now planning for us. I hate it. We have 3 different lawyers-one I fired- and each one has a little different idea. I am so sick of the whole thing I am ready to say forget it. We have had a trust for quite a while, this is just some revisions and it seems one leads to another. I am getting to the point where I don't care what happens when I die!
But yes, we needed to get my parent's appraised because if we sold it we had to know it's value at the time of their death AND if we had to pay estate taxes. We got three appraisals and you can use the lowest one. Right now as far as estate taxes go, an estate can leave their kids $5,400,000. (not exactly 400) before they need to pay estate taxes. So if your mother's place is not worth more than that you won't have to pay estate taxes.
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