Clients ask me daily, “which is right for me… a will or a trust?”  They are really asking which should be the centerpiece of their estate plan.  A basic will is great and establishes important things like a guardianship for minor children and a testamentary trust to protect inheritances from immature youths. On the other […]

Everybody is different but I suspect a lot of people have new year’s resolutions that include things like the following: – Go to the gym 5 times a week; – Eat less junk food; – Wake up early; – Don’t buy a cup of coffee every morning; … and the list goes on and on. […]

A lot of people know what “living trusts” are. However, how many know what a “testamentary trust” is?  A testamentary trust is simply a trust that takes affect AFTER DEATH. Usually this is done by creating a will and within that will creating the trust language which will take affect after death and after probate. […]

How fast is fast? Well, with probate time sort of stands still.  A traditional California probate takes 7 months minimum to complete. I will lay out the timeline below but you can also visit my graphical view of this at https://www.californiaprobate.info/probate/timeline.  It can longer… much longer… but you won’t find a probate being finished sooner than […]

The California probate process is very form driven. However, it is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, quite the contrary.  Many of the forms are state mandated on what are called Judicial Council Forms.  Many others are county specific and available at the county Court house. Still others are drafted by […]

Probate has a bad rap due to the huge costs involved. Of course many of the costs are related to paying the attorney and the personal representative.  Those are based on the sliding percentage scale for “ordinary fees” and by judicial determination for “extraordinary fees.”  Today’s post, however, is about the actual out of pocket […]

I lost my dad, Michael Palley, when I was 14 years old.  I thus learned, at a young age, what “probate” meant.  Though he was an attorney we were not wealthy and, embarrassingly in hindsight, he had not done all he could to plan his estate before death.  Not to get overly personal, but it’s interesting […]

I met with a nice couple yesterday who had a revocable living trust set up about 15 years ago by a well respected local estate planning attorney. I know the attorney and think she is perfectly capable at her job. No, she is not as good as me but… she’s perfectly acceptable.  I reviewed the […]

I have discussed with clients many times about what are the most important estate planning documents and where should these important documents be kept. I will answer the second question first.  Over the years I have seen far too many safe deposit box keys turn up after death and the family has no idea where […]

I received this notice recently and thought all my readers would be interested.  As always remember that the FDIC rules are temporary and thus any time you have more than $100,000 at one bank you should be keeping track of the latest FDIC rules. Changes in FDIC Deposit Insurance Coverage November 9, 2010 On November […]