Powers of attorney are an important part of your estate plan. Below are answers to some of the most frequent questions I am asked about powers of attorney. What is a power of attorney? With the use of a power of attorney, you give legal permission and authority to another individual to act on your […]
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Will & Trust Contests Explained
A will or trust contest is the legal process of challenging the asset distribution written into a will or trust. A person who makes a will or trust (testator/settlor) can freely choose who they want to leave their assets to after they die. However, it is usually not until after the testator dies (now referred to […]
Avoiding Probate
Probate is an expensive and time consuming court proceeding that can usually be avoided with some simple advance planning. The most common method used to avoid probate is to hold assets in “joint tenancy.” An example of this would be husband and wife owning a house and both names appearing on the deed with the […]
Why do I need to go through probate?
Q: Dad died two years ago. Mom just died. Her will left the house to me. Why do I need to go to court? A: Unfortunately, things are never quite as simple as they seem. If you try to sell the house, the records at the County Recorder’s office don’t show you as the owner. Even if […]
The truth about that hot cup of coffee at McDonald’s
I’m sure most of you heard about the 81 year old woman who spilled hot coffee on herself at McDonald’s. What the late night comics failed to tell you is: “If a jury decides a victim is entitled to a large damage award, it’s almost always due to the greed or callous indifference of the […]
Getting married? Think about a pre nup?
A prenuptial agreement (pre-nup) is an agreement that two people enter into before they marry. In California a prenuptial agreement may define whether or not property is community or separate. This distinction is very important if the couple divorces or one dies without a will. Under California law, any property that a person owns prior […]
California now recognizes Intentional Interference with Inheritance as a civil wrong, a tort
Recently decided case of Beckwith v. Dahl. This will not be a savior to everyone who gets cut out of an estate, but in certain cases when someone commits a deliberate wrongful act it may help. In a recent California Appellate Court decision, Beckwith v. Dahl, the court recognized that when someone commits a deliberate […]
Protect Yourself with Insurance Against Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists
When planning your estate, have you considered how much insurance you carry, or even more importantly how much insurance do you carry for under or uninsured motorists? I recently had a case where one of my own expert witnesses had a family member involved in a horrible crash. He stood to lose everything he owned […]
Putting off taking care of your affairs is very costly
Just had two clients contact me with mothers on their death beds. In one case the woman was still able to think rationally, make decisions, and sign documents. I was able to do a trust for her which saved her family thousands of dollars in probate fees, when she died a few weeks later. In […]
Who will take care of things if I’m not around?
For some families with young or irresponsible children, who will act as the executor or successor trustee is a very hard question to answer. Most institutions won’t act for smaller estates (under $5,000,000) or if they do, they charge enormous fees. One solution in CA may be private professional fiduciaries Families with younger, disabled or […]