Can I Reclaim My Inheritance if I Signed a Disclaimer?

Attorney Thomas B. Burton answers the following question: "Can I Reclaim My Inheritance if I Signed a Disclaimer?"

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Hello, I'm Attorney Thomas Burton and welcome back to our popular Question and Answers Series.

Today's question is the following -

"Can I reclaim my inheritance if I signed a disclaimer?

I signed my inheritance over to my sister to use if she needed more money for my father's care. She did not need it! Can I reclaim it?"

So I would discuss this question with the attorney, handling the estate of your father or whoever drafted the disclaimer in the first place for you to sign. It sounds to me like, yes, you said you signed a disclaimer, it is likely it's too late to take back the disclaimer unless this occurred very recently. However, there may be a way for your sister to gift the money back to you, although this could have gift tax implications depending on how long has passed since you signed that disclaimer.

The answer to the question will depend on the dates and amounts of money involved, whether the inheritance passed under a will or trust or via some other method and whether the probate estate is still open or has been closed. You generally have nine months after the effective date of transfer to disclaim an inheritance.

So often, that's nine months from date of death, if it's under a will or other document, the date of the death, the person who died that triggered the gift. I recommend you check out Wisconsin statute 854.13 for more details and then I would consult with your own qualified attorney about the tax implications of any of this proposed course of action.

So again, because I don't have the dates here and you said, you signed it over for father's care, if this happened recently, is possibly you have more options to undo the disclaimer. If it happened a long time ago, I think it's probably less likely, but again, I would discuss it with both the attorney handling the estate, who may have drafted the disclaimer and possibly your own independent legal counsel about the tax implications and the key here is going to be the dates and the amount of money involved.

So in general, a disclaimer for others watching, is how you can say here is a gift I've been granted. I don't want it, I'm disclaiming it and it passes on to the next person named in the will or trust and it sounds like that's what this viewer did here.

So great question, thank you for asking, thank you for watching and if this video has been helpful to you, please consider giving it a LIKE, so that other people can see and benefit from this information as well.

Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.

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