As you saw yesterday I want to try and blog about more of the California probate code section in coming days, weeks and months. There are so many incredible sections full of information there. Ok, let me back up a little bit. My parents were both attorneys. My dad was so into being an attorney […]

Just a quickie about the importance of doing your will and always appointing guardians for the person and estate of any minors. I met with a young woman this morning who recently divorced her husband. The thought of her ex being involved is something she wants to avoid. We talked about the guardian of the […]

Did you know lawyers sometimes sit around and just think about the law!? Ok, well this lawyer does anyway. Probate Code 850 (in full below) is one of my favorites. It’s one of the most used tools we have in the trust administration world. Just look at the words of who can file a petition […]

I know this is off topic but it caught me by surprise so thought I would tell you. My neighbor works in the construction industry; building bridges and stuff. He recently told us about this new law which, as of July 1, 2011, required us to have a carbon monoxide detector in our house. I, […]

Calls are coming in almost daily from people who are administering their parent’s, or other loved one’s, trust after death.  The calls are sounding similar… “my dad died and his stocks were not in the trust” or “my mom died, she had re-fi’d her house but never put it back in the trust.”  I get […]

I am preparing some notes for a presentation I am making next week to some CFP students at UC Davis Extension. I have taught the whole 10 week class, in estate planning,  before.  This time I will be a guest lecturer in the tax class for CFP students. I will talking about the taxation of […]

The day Bob got hired to work for Acme, Inc. he went through a bunch of paperwork with the HR office.  He signed some forms about his health insurance, maybe an employee manual, his group life insurance beneficiary, and maybe his 401k or retirement beneficiary.  He probably named his wife, Wilma, as the primary beneficiary […]

The other day I was talking to a new client and he told me that he recorded his financial power of attorney with the county because he “had to since he has real estate.”  I can only imagine where he got this advice but it’s just simply wrong. It’s wrong for so many reasons. I […]

“I am not quite ready to sign my estate plan becuase… [insert excuse here].” I hear this almost every day. The problem is there is NEVER a perfect time to do your estate plan nor is there ever a perfect estate plan. There are good times and bad times but there is NO perfect time! Likewise […]

As my law practice has developed over the years it has gotten to the point where it is 50% estate planning and 50% probate and trust administration. This means 50% of my work is planning for death and 50% is cleaning up after the fact. Let’s back up real quick. I went to three years […]