Blog Posts About Estate Planning

When your parents create a revocable Trust, they don’t have to tell you about it. And if they change the Trust terms to either give you more or less, they don’t have to tell you that either. Often people will find out about a change to their parent’s Trust after…

A little planning goes a long way in any crisis. The present coronavirus pandemic isn’t the only time when you may encounter an emergency in your life. Every day we deal with families who have unfortunately lost a loved one. It comes with the territory when you practice in the…

What are some of the reasons why a parent might disinherit a child? A lot of times we think that a parent will disinherit a child because a child was bad: the child was abusive to the parent, or became a drug addict, or acted irresponsibly somehow.  That certainly can…

Who is qualified to act as Trustee? As a basic requirement, a Trustee must be an adult over the age of 18. Additionally, a Trustee must have legal capacity, so obviously a person who is mentally incapacitated would not be able to act as Trustee.  Beyond that, almost any adult…

What is an Estate? It sounds like a relatively easy question. At least in my mind it does. But the answer is a bit more complicated. An Estate can mean a lot of different things. People often think that their Estate is all of the assets they own. And that…

There’s a significant difference between Estate Litigation Attorneys and Estate Planning Attorneys. Obviously, by definition, one type of attorney handles estate planning and the other type litigates over the enforcement of those plans. For example, if your parents want to create a Trust, Will, and Durable Powers of Attorney, they’re…

A trustee is the Trust manager, the person who calls the shots. But the trustee has limits on what they can do with the Trust property. The trustee cannot do whatever they want. They must follow the trust document, and follow the California Probate Code. More than that, Trustees don’t get…

A Trust beneficiary is the person who will enjoy the assets of the Trust. In legal jargon, trust and will attorneys refer to Trust beneficiaries as the “equitable owners” of the Trust. Beneficiaries will receive money and other assets from the Trust either outright (meaning being paid all at once)…

In California, a printed Will (that is any will that comes out of a printer) must be signed by the person creating it, and by two witnesses. If the Will is not signed by two witnesses, then it is invalid. Many people think they can have the Will notarized, but…

Trustees and Executors are similar in many ways. They are both fiduciaries. A fiduciary is someone who is put in charge of someone else’s money. A Trustee is a fiduciary over a Trust, and an Executor is a fiduciary over a probate estate. Trustees are responsible for administering a trust…