Imagine this scenario: your cousin, David, dies without an estate plan here in California. He had no children or further descendants. He has no living siblings, parents, grandparents, or aunts or uncles, but he does have you, his first cousin on his dad’s side. His only first cousin that you are aware of. You petition the court to open a…
As estate planning and trust administration attorneys, we run into quite a few issues regularly with clients where the issue can be resolved by looking at specific documents. Often, the clients cannot find those documents, either because they are very old or because they do not appear to be very important. Here we will go through a list, although not…
In California, owning assets in a revocable trust enables your family to avoid probate, a court process used to transfer assets to beneficiaries of a will or the decedent’s heirs. One of the main reasons to create a trust is to avoid probate. Unfortunately, more often than we would like, when we assist clients with trust administration after the death…
This seems like a simple question, right? My retirement goes to the person I listed as my beneficiary (spouse, kids, etc.). Most of the time this is true, yet we also get a fair share of people having to file a probate for an IRA or having to request the court to allow someone to set up a special needs…
Big Three from Episode #059: Elder mediation can help families reach agreements about legal, financial, and care planning for their aging loved ones and their estate. Even if you think a conflicting party will not agree to mediation, it’s worth getting in touch with a mediator to find ways to engage the parties in communication. The ultimate goal is to…