Year: 2018

Occasionally we see cases where a parent leaves all of their assets to a child with the understanding that the child will share the assets with the siblings. For example, a parent may name one child as a joint tenant on a house or bank account, and then expect that…

Why can’t the judge see the case, see the lies and throw out the bad Trust amendment? Ultimately, the judge or jury will decide if you win or lose your case, but the court does not have the power to make a decision without first following due process. Our judicial…

Many times clients will tell us that their mom, dad, grandmother, whomever would never have disinherited them and everybody knows that to be true. Why isn’t that enough to overturn a Trust or Will? The answer lies in the type of evidence you must provide to the court if you…

When is a Will a Will? When the court issues an order saying the Will is valid. Before that time, the Will is just a possible Will. In other words, Wills do not take effect, and have no power to control the distribution of an estate, until the court first…

If you ever hire a lawyer, you will be asked to sign an engagement agreement that sets forth the attorneys’ fees and costs you will be required to pay. But what’s the difference between fees and costs? Simply put, fees refer to the money you pay to a lawyer for…

We have used the term abused beneficiary for many years now. When we refer to an abused beneficiary, we mean a Trust or Will beneficiary that has been denied their rightful inheritance in some fashion. There are two main types of abused beneficiaries, which we refer to as vested and…

Somewhere out there is a common misconception that a revocable, living Trust cannot be contested in court. That’s false. You can go to the courthouse in any county in California today and find thousands upon thousands of Trust contest cases. By Trust contest case, we mean a lawsuit to try…

A Trust, to be validly created, must have assets. In other words, a Trust cannot exist, legally speaking, without some property being held by the Trustee. Trusts are not like corporations, they do not exist absent Trust property. And all Trust property fits into one of two categories: principal or…

There are times when a Trustee causes damage to a Trust estate. When that occurs, you have the right to ask the court to issue a surcharge against the Trustee. That’s a complicated way of saying you want the court to order the Trustee to pay money back to the…

If a Trustee commits a breach of Trust, or threatens to do so, California law allows a beneficiary or a co-Trustee to take action.  What action can you take?  That depends on the type of breach committed.  Under Probate Code section 16420, the court is authorized to take the following…