Unless you live under a rock, deep in a cave, you have heard about the new tax act that Congress is putting together. This is not a political commentary on that act. More importantly a few things to remember: – With regards to estate tax very few people reading this need to worry about that […]

I had an interesting case lately. The decedent had money in another jurisdiction that was not in their trust. However, it’s in a different jurisdiction, with different laws, and it sounds like the bank account has some funky titling not normal in the United States. It simply wasn’t clear what the banker wanted to clear […]

SCAM ALERT An old friend lost her husband recently. He was a really great guy but that’s not the point of this post. She told me that within days of the death she received a call where the caller said, “hi Grandma it’s your grandson Michael….” I don’t remember the details of what she told […]

You just lost a loved one… now what? As a probate attorney for over 20 years I have dealt with well over 1,000 deaths at work. I have also dealt with the deaths of several family members and close friends. It’s a part of life… death and taxes! So, you just a loved one what […]

You get calendar notes in your probate court case. Now what do you? Every county is different. Some counties post calendar notes (or “tentative rulings”) a day before the court hearing and some do it a month before. Some do not post anything and you appear in Court and see what the Judge has to […]

Did you know you can request your first probate court hearing be hearing in only 30 days? The California probate code specifically authorizes this at California probate code 8003. Here is the text of that section: 8003. (a) The hearing on the petition shall be set for a day not less than 15 nor more […]

I had a really interesting fact pattern today that I wanted to share. I got the perspective client’s permission to share but, of course, names are changed for privacy. Sadly Gina’s mom, Molly, died in December of 2015 and her dad, Donald, died in December of 2016. A crappy 12 months for Gina we can […]

I feel thankful that NBI and other organizations consistently ask me to come talk about estate and probate law.  Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking for almost two hours on probate law to a group of attorneys and paralegals. My topic outline is below. I get a real charge out of talking to a group […]

As my avid readers know I was excited to release a book about the California probate process a couple months back. In all honesty sales have been better than expected. It took a while to get the Kindle format working but it should be up and running now. Go to Amazon and check it out. […]

I spoke to a potential new client recently who has a very common scenario. For this blog we will call them Mr. and Mrs. Smith.  He and his wife have a trust from the early 1980’s.  It appears to be a fairly standard trust. Along with it they also have “pour over” wills as most […]