A trustee may ask a beneficiary to sign a piece of paper indemnifying the trustee prior to making a distribution of trust assets. First, let’s talk about what indemnification means? Indemnification is a legal term. It literally means that one person is going to pay for any loss or harm suffered by another person. What […]
How are you going to pay for your lawsuit? Unfortunately, lawsuits in the modern age are very expensive. It costs a lot of money to hire a lawyer, to pay for all the discovery that you have to do, issue subpoenas, take depositions, hire expert witnesses, pay court filing fees. Everything costs time and money. […]
California trust law creates a hierarchy among beneficiaries. That means not all beneficiaries are equal. Some beneficiaries outrank others. Some beneficiaries have better rights than other beneficiaries. Current Beneficiaries The starting point is current beneficiaries, people who are named now who are supposed to be receiving something out of the trust. That’s what we call a […]
Family agreements can often be some of the most confusing areas that we deal with as trust and will litigators. The reason is that when families agree to do things for one another, they tend not to document the agreement in writing. They don’t think of the family agreement as a contract in the sense […]
Beneficiary deeds are a fairly new creation, under California law. A beneficiary transfer deed allows you to file something with the County Recorder’s Office that says, in effect, “After my death, I want my property to pass to my stated beneficiary.” It’s kind of like a beneficiary designation on a life insurance policy or a […]
There are times when a trustee is approached by one of the trust beneficiaries and the trust beneficiary says, “Hey, I really like the cabin in Big Bear. I’d like to buy the cabin in Big Bear. Can you sell it to me?” And the trustee’s response should be, “It depends on how other trust beneficiaries […]
Let’s talk a little bit about the difference between general gifts and specific gifts. Then we’ll also talk about residue gifts or remainders Basically speaking, a specific gift is when you are given the gift of a specific property. Specific Gift The most common specific gift is real property such as a house or piece […]
Stewart Albertson and Keith Davidson of Albertson & Davidson, a trust, estate and probate litigation law firm, address common inheritance questions in “Ask 2 Lawyers,” an online videos series. In the informative, short videos, the attorneys who help clients fight for their inheritance, address questions about California law regarding wills, trusts and inheritance. The videos […]
Once in a while, we do see trustees giving away money from a trust to people who aren’t actually named beneficiaries of the trust. To this day, I have no idea why they do it. Misappropriation of Trust Funds by Trustee The situations in which we normally see this is when the trustee is a […]
2019 Scholarship Winners! Albertson & Davidson Announces 2019 Scholarship Winners for the Infographic Scholarship Contest The attorneys at Albertson & Davidson, LLP are pleased to announce the winners of their 2019 scholarship contest that involved the creation of infographics about warning signs of dementia or nursing home abuse. How the Probate Lawyers Decide Scholarship Winners […]
