Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

will confers ownership right on her. So first she has to accept and then can gift / transfer to her children

A bequest in a will may be "disclaimed", but this has to be done within a certain time after the death of the person who wrote the will.

However, if the property was titled as "John Doe" and "Mary Doe", husband and wife, or similar words, or as tenants by the entirety, the property automatically became hers alone upon his death.

Also, if the property is tenants by the entirety, a will cannot dispose of the interest of one of the owners. Under traditional legal principles, spouses who are tenants by the entirety are considered one person, so only one of the spouses does not own an interest separately from the other.

THIS RESPONSE IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE, SINCE I DO NOT HAVE ALL OF THE INFORMATION THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED, AND I DO NOT HAVE A REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT WITH YOU.

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You confuse 2 different things. What the other attorneys advised is correct but I will try to make it more clear. If a will left land to you (assuming it was not already owned by you and your husband as husband and wife) then you can accept the land. You can then gift it to your children if you choose. However, that is a bad idea as you are only allowed to gift up to $13,000 per year per person without paying gift taxes. You would need to speak to a CPA or tax attorney (I am not either of those). Also, if you give away land, the children would not get a step-up in basis that they would get if they inherited the land instead whenever you passed. The step-up in basis may or may not be important - it depends on what the land is worth and how long you would be expected to own it. The basis becomes relevant for capital gains tax purposes. Again, see a CPA or tax attorney - I just know enough about these things to know to go and ask an expert.

If you disclaimed the bequest of land (and a disclaimer has to be done in accordance with federal and state law and be in a specific form and meet specific requirements), then you will be treated as if you had died before your husband. In such case, the property would pass as per his will and you could not give it to your children unless they are the beneficiaries next designated to inherit.

And as noted by Attorney Jacobson, if you and your husband owned the land as husband and wife (meaning that both of you were on the deed and it was clear that you owned the land jointly as husband and wife) (the legal term is tenancy-by-the-entireties), then that means that the land automatically goes to the surviving spouse on death. That means that the wife already owns it. In such case, she could not disclaim ownership, but she could gift it to her children if that is what she wanted to do.

Disclaimers usuallty have to be filed no later than 9 months after death. The post does not indicate when the husband died, but if the wife is still within those time limits, then she needs to go see an estate planning attorney to discuss her own estate plan. Disclaiming and gifting the land to the children may or may not make sense but the wife will not know until she sees an attorney. If disclaiming can still be accomplished and will make sense, then wife may need to see a CPA/tax attorney and also a real estate attorney to accomplish the transfer and to discuss the potential tax liability.

Of course, all this costs money, but you are trying to do relatively sophisticated things and you need to ensure that they are done correctly.

One final point - I don't know why you want to gift the land to your children now. While I already discussed the tax issues, the other problem concerns Medicaid. I don't know your age or other circumstances, but there is a 5 year lookback period under the Medicaid rules. What this means is that if you give away the property today and then apply for Medicaid in less than 5 years (like if you had to go into assisted living) then you would have to figure out a way to pay for your stay. Medicare only covers a short stay and nursing homes are very costly. Most people do not plan ahead - the time for planning is before you will ever need Medicaid, not trying to transfer property right before you go into a nursing home. That is another reason why you need to consult with an attorney about your estate plan - to make sure that gifting now will not affect any entitlement to Medicaid in the future.