You can sum up a California Trustee’s duty of care in one word: Reasonable. Well that sounds…reasonable. To be precise, California Probate Code section 16040(a) states the standard of care this way: The trustee shall administer the trust with reasonable care, skill, and caution under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in […]
Do you have anything in your past that you are a little embarrassed about, or perhaps something unpleasant such as a nasty divorce, an arrest, a bankruptcy? Everyone has something in their past that they would like to forget. And yet, when you’re in a Trust or Will lawsuit the opposing party goes out of […]
Under California law you only have 120 days after receiving notice to challenge the validity of a Trust. (See Probate Code section 16061.8.) That is a bright-line deadline that cannot be changed once notice is served. Or is it? What if a Trust is revoked before death; is a 120-day notice effective to challenging a […]
In its simplest form, a Trust is merely the holding of money by a person for the benefit of someone else. When a friend hands you his wallet until he gets back, a Trust is formed. Trust Funding: The Essential Step Trusts cannot be formed without property transferring from the hands of the owner to […]
What happens to debts after you’re gone? There’s two ways to look at that question: (1) debts that are owed TO you, and (2) debts that are owed BY you. Are either type still enforceable after your death? Debts owed TO you Let’s start with debts that are owed to you, in other words, where […]
Trust restatements allow a Settlor to replace the terms of a Trust without having to create a new Trust and transfer the title of all assets to the new Trust. In fact, it is the titling of assets that makes a restatement a much better approach in most cases. Restatements are used only when the […]
Fun fact: Trusts are not testamentary documents. That means Trusts do not have to follow all of the strict rules required to make a valid Will. Wills require a written document, signed by the decedent and witnessed by two witnesses…not so for Trusts. Trusts fall into a broad category of estate planning vehicles known as […]
Unlike Wills, you can have an enforceable Trust that is not written down—referred to as an oral Trust. The idea behind an oral Trust is that you can give property (other than real property) to someone as a “Trustee” and ask them to hold it in favor of a beneficiary. The problem, of course, is […]
If your Trust is amendable, can you amend it with a handwritten change? The answer is probably yes, but maybe no. That’s sounds like a typical lawyer response. Let’s explore this a bit. Under Probate Code section 15402, a Trust can be amended according to the terms of the Trust. If the Trust terms are […]
We Trust and Will trial attorneys just love the confusing world of Bypass Trusts. What began as a simple way of saving money on estate tax has become a sword and shield of warring family members. In its simplest form, a Bypass Trust is created after one spouse dies. The Bypass Trust is supposed to […]
