Might be a better option anyway depending on the tax situation. Something to look into.
I think you’re being a pleasant person.
As others have said, it’s your mother’s money.
I’d also like to warn you that some very unpleasant things happen when an inheritance is at stake.
As previous posters have said, wills can be challenged, even when the intent was clear.
My suggestion is that your mother’s lawyer writes her will very carefully, specifically to avoid disputes when the family should be focusing on the loss of a loved one.
Write your brother a letter, & ask him to particpate. Leave a PO box for the return address, & no phone #, so he will have to write.
He might say “no”, & you would get a valuable document, that he refused to take part in estate planning. Very nice if it comes to court.
If “yes”, work with him, & try to mend fences, if you can.
Wow. I’m in pretty much the exact same boat. Except, as far as I know, my Mom is going to split it 50/50 which is fine with me. Even though my brother really does not deserve one red cent. She is still his mom even if he refuses to be her son. It’s her choice.
Or she could set up a revocable living trust and transfer all her assets into that. No probate, no will to contest, everything is already owned by the trust, which contains provisions for what to happen when the trust beneficiary (her) dies.
Your brother could of course hire a lawyer to try to break the trust, saying she wasn’t in her sound mind, was unduly influenced, etc., but that’d be much harder to do (especially if she shares a copy of the trust paperwork beforehand).
I hate asshole sibs. My one brother threw tantrum after tantrum after our mother’s death, and her will split everything evenly. Except, she had a typed document that requested specific items go to specific family members, for sentimental etc. reasons (e.g. my brother’s daughter got half of the jewelry, I got the other half to pass onto my daughter). Assbro tried screaming that the jewelry was worth a fortune and it should come out of our 1/4 share and WAHYOUREALLTHIEVES. This of course was the same brother who, some years earlier, had written my parents a letter, addressing them as Mr and Mrs, saying they’d ruined his life and he wanted nothing more to do with them.
Why no, we don’t have any contact with him, why do you ask?
As may be the trust idea.
Are we talking about “Mom is loaded” or are we talking about “after Mom gets done with the nursing home we are going to be fighting over who gets half of the Beanie Baby collection?”
Because honestly, the amount of effort this deserves really depends on that answer. If mom is loaded, then SHE should consult with an estate attorney or estate tax planner (probably both), if SHE wants to bring up the thought that your brother might contest the will, the estate attorney will have some ideas about how to go about making that difficult or unlikely - or easy for you. If she has social security checks and a few thousand in savings - it isn’t even worth worrying about - if your brother starts fighting over a twenty year old VCR, its time to walk away with things your mother gave you for sentimental reasons while she was still living.
Be very careful with this – the concept is often a good one, but care needs to be taken in the execution.
When property transfers from one person to another, the question arises: “Was it a gift, or was it a loan, or was it in trust?”
If a gift, then you keep it. If a loan, then you have to repay it to the estate. If in trust, then you have to return all of it to the estate less the amount that you can prove was properly spent for her benefit.
Different jurisdictions have different presumptions when it come to transfers from senior parent to adult child, so get advice from an estates lawyer in her jurisdiction before making any transfers, and be certain to have proof of the intention of the type of transfer. Proof of her state of mind and proof of her having independent legal advice before making a transfer will go a long way to fending off a claim against the recipient by either the estate or another beneficiary.
And it gets complicated if your mother needs extensive health care - if she gives you a bunch of money and within a few years goes into a nursing home that the state pays for - in the U.S. they will come after you for the money she gave you - even if it was clearly a gift. I can’t remember the length of time or the amount of money that triggers a recovery - which is why if the estate is enough to worry about, she (and maybe you) should be talking to an estate planner.
Another thing to watch out for when trying to keep assets out of the estate is registered investment and life insurance beneficiary designations. Depending on the law of your jurisdiction, a standard term in a will that says “I revoke all previous testemants” may or may not wipe out beneficiary designations on investments that were originally intended to be kept out of the estate, and result in plopping them back into the estate. Again, an estate lawyer in her jurisdiction can advise on the law of her jurisdiction on this issue. (In mine, the law is mixed, causing no end of consternation for estate planners.)