Dear Mr. Premack: My father remarried shortly after my mother’s death. His new wife went through his savings in three months, so to protect his house he signed a life estate deed giving it to all his children. He is divorced now, and wants to sell the home and move into an assisted living facility. What can he do to transfer ownership back into his name so he can sell the home? He anticipates some of his adult children may refuse to change. GT

When your father signed the deed, he was locked in to whatever terms it contained. In a typical life estate deed he would have retained the right to occupy and enjoy his home for the rest of his life, and would have given the remainder interest to his children. At the moment of your father’s death that remainder interest becomes full ownership, so it can be quite valuable.

He cannot cancel the gift acting alone. Each of the children owns rights in the house. Your father cannot force them to give back their interests.

There are two possible escape routes. First, he can ask each of them to voluntarily give up their rights by signing new deeds back to him. Any one of them could refuse, or could demand payment for return of the gift.

Second, he may have had the foresight to include a provision in the original life estate deed in which he retained the right to cancel the gift. If so, he can sign a new deed that reclaims from his children the remainder interest he gave to them in the original deed. He would be reclaiming ownership without permission from the children since he reserved the right to do so at the time he gave them their interests.

Dear Mr. Premack: I have a living trust. I recently purchased two annuities. Starting in August 2008 the annuities will pay me a monthly income. The annuities are not in the trust. Do they need to be? Do I need a lawyer to handle the matter? SW

I have written about annuities and about living trusts many times over the years. If you have access to the internet, visit www.Premack.com to read my May 23, 2006 column describing the nature of annuities.

The annuities you purchased will convert from deferred annuities into immediate annuities in August 2008. Typically, your investment in an annuity becomes non-refundable when it becomes an immediate annuity. The terms of your contract with the insurance company declare to whom the monthly payments will be made and for how long they will continue.

As such, the annuities are non-testamentary assets. Ownership is determined according to the terms of the contract. If you die, the payments stop or, perhaps, continue for a short while to someone you have designated in the contract. You do not need to place ownership of the annuities into the trust, and you do not need a lawyer for this since no changes are necessary.

However, I sincerely hope you had a lawyer when you set up the living trust. Too often I see families who purchased a "trust package" from a salesperson. The companies running these scams often misrepresent the benefits of living trusts. They falsely legitimize themselves by associating with some lawyer in a distant city who never talks with the buyer and does not represent the buyer.

They may use the popular appeal of living trusts as leverage to gain access to the buyer’s financial data. The trust is left incomplete while the salesperson presses annuities and other financial products on the buyer. If you are considering a living trust, do not buy a trust package from a salesperson; instead, seek individual legal counsel from an estate planning attorney or a certified elder law attorney.