A friend and colleague recently brought to my attention an aspect of our estate planning that neither of us had understood before and which had profoundly affected the family of a dear friend of hers. I am sharing this now to help spread awareness. As with many of the issues we must address in our estate planning, there is no…
Over the years I have seen clients struggle to get access to a parent’s safe deposit box after death. More than once, this seemingly simple task required us to open a probate proceeding in court, even though the deceased parent had set up a revocable trust to avoid probate. I’ve said this before: telling a client we have to do…
Parents often create a revocable living trust to ensure that their children are provided for upon their deaths. However, parents may struggle to decide how to leave an inheritance to their children and how much control they wish to exercise after their deaths. This is especially the case when parents have young children or children who struggle with financial responsibility.…
I don’t know about you, but when the State of California announced a few years back that it would remove assets as a factor in all Medi-Cal eligibility, I thought it was too good to be true. Turns out, it was true, but it was just too good to last for very long. Pursuant to the state’s 2026 budget announced…
