Blog Posts About Probate Law

TRUSTS Wouldn’t it be nice to combine the best features of joint tenancy with a Will? That’s where Trusts come into play. Trusts are now one of the most widely used devices to transfer assets from parent to child. Over the course of this series you are going to learn…

Shouldn’t it be easy if I want to transfer my property to my kids after I am gone? Whatever it may be: a house, savings, stocks and bonds. What does it matter if I use a Trust, will, or anything else? It should just pass to the kids. But passing…

In our first post in this Trust Uses and Abuses series, we discussed the dreaded word: Probate. In this post we will explore why the court-supervised world of Probate causes anxiety when it comes to using Wills. Why all the fuss? Well as you might imagine, any process that requires…

Did you know that Trusts didn’t used to be so widely used? In fact, the widespread use of Trusts for planning the transfer of assets from parents to children is a fairly new development. It wasn’t that long ago that everyone passed their asset on to the next generation using…

What is an heir-at-law? What does that term mean in California under the California Probate Code? When people die intestate, meaning they die without a will or a trust, their assets pass to their heirs. There are other instances where we might use the term “heir.” For example, oftentimes, we’ll…

In California, most of our Trust laws, the laws that apply to Trustees, to Trust Administration, and to the distribution of assets to Beneficiaries, can be found in the California Probate Code.  You can find the California Probate Code by going online and searching Google for California Probate Code. One…

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…

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…

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…

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…