Tiburon, CA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

Yes, a person can choose to whom they want to leave their possessions and what conditions, behaviors, or actions are required before the beneficiary receives anything. However, you can't require the beneficiary to do anything illegal or dangerous. Some people create a trust instead of giving money outright when they worry that the beneficiary will squander the gift. In a trust, a responsible person or company controls the assets in the trust and doles out the proceeds to the beneficiary according to the directions in the will.

This would depend on whether the home is community property with you, and whether he left you a usufruct (or right of use) to the home after his death. If he bought the home during your marriage and the two of you did not have a prenuptial agreement, it is likely community property.

Was the property held as joint tenants, community property or separate property? If either of the first two, it will pass first to the wife and then to her heirs. If part or all of it was Husband's separation property, then his children will get two-thirds of that, with the rest going to Wife, and, consequently, to her heirs.