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possessed a community property interest. Upon retirement, the
husband deposited the funds from these plans into three
individual retirement accounts (IRA's). The accounts were solely
in the husband's name, with the designated beneficiary of each
being a revocable living trust which had been created by the
pension plan. The husband's children, in turn, were the
beneficiaries of that living trust. The forms for the IRA
accounts contained a space for the signature of a spouse who was
not designated as the sole primary beneficiary to indicate the
spouse's consent to the designation. Mrs. MacDonald signed the
consent form. Upon her death, Mrs. MacDonald's estate petitioned
to establish its one-half interest in the IRA accounts.
The issue in Estate of MacDonald was whether Mrs. MacDonald
had waived her community property interest or whether there had
been a transmutation of her community property interest in the
pension-IRA's. The court held that Mrs. MacDonald's signature on
the space below the consent paragraph did not satisfy California
Civil Code section 5110.730(a).
a writing signed by the adversely affected spouse is
not an "express declaration" for the purposes of
section 5110.730(a) unless it contains language which
expressly states that the characterization or ownership
of the property is being changed. [In re Estate of
MacDonald, supra at 918.]
In other words, the defect in the writing in Estate of MacDonald
was its ambiguity:
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