Dual Escrow Explained (CFFL 583)

Transcript: 

Jack:                     Jack, Jill here.

Jill:                        Hi.

Jack:                     Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about dual escrow explained.

Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It's free.

Jill:                        Okay. Tom asked, "I've got this deal in California. The property is in a trust. Two trustees, husband and wife. Wife contacted me. She wants to sell. Husband no longer alive."

Jack:                     I love how this is written. "Husband no longer alive." Stop.

Jill:                        I know.

Jack:                     "I have the grant deed certificate of death." Stop. Go ahead.

Jill:                        Oh, is that okay?

Jack:                     Yeah I like it.

Jill:                        Alright. "Is that enough to record the new deed in California? If yes, what should this deed look like? Does the name of the deceased husband still have to be on the new deed? Or should I just attach a copy of the death certificate and the affidavit of death of trustee to the deed with a signature of the one person who is still alive, who is the wife?" Mouthful.

Jack:                     So, I can answer this or you can.

Jill:                        Go for it.

Jack:                     So, this is how you need to think of a trust. A trust is an institution. Think of it as a five gallon bucket that can own property. You as an individual can own property. You're an entity. A LLC is an entity that can own property, just like a trust. So, if a trust owns property, like the dead guy's trust, the dead guy's 1987 trust, that's the entity that's going to convey the property. In fact, people put trusts together so they don't have to go through all this malarkey when someone dies. The trust is just the grantor. So, the trust, no matter who's alive, if the trustee is still alive or not, the trust names trustees after people pass away so that they have execution power for this document.

Jill:                        Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jack:                     So, the trust is going to convey the document as it's written. If some person is dead, you don't need to deal with it at all. It's addressed somewhere in the trust, if I'm understanding this question correctly. Whoever the grantee is, the new person who's going to own the property, the dead guy's 1987 trust conveys to Jill K. Dewitt, an individual, and it's over. You don't have to file any affidavits. You don't have to file any of that stuff.

Here's what you're confusing it with, Tom. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a married couple, own a property in California, and Mr. Smith is dead and just Mrs. Smith is there.

Jill:                        What happened to him?

Jack:                     He died. She killed him slowly.

Jill:                        That's what I was wondering.

Jack:                     She talked him to death.

Jill:                        Oh my gosh, Jack.

Jack:                     She nit, nit, nit, nit all day for 45 years and he died.

Jill:                        Death by words.

Jack:                     He just couldn't get up one day because he just couldn't take it.

Jill:                        You've been telling me that it's going to be death by words.

Jack:                     Good question, by the way.

Jill:                        Thank you. That's a thing now.

Jack:                     So, Mrs. Smith is walking around-

Jill:                        Mr. Smith just stopped eating purposefully.

Jack:                     He fasted in protest.

Jill:                        He did.

Jack:                     A Mrs. Smith protest.

Jill:                        He let his body shut down just to make it stop.

Jack:                     Or maybe Mrs. Smith ... Maybe he talked too much,