When it comes to estate planning and making decisions for the future, it is essential to understand the roles of various fiduciaries that can help manage your affairs. Two commonly used roles are an agent under a durable power of attorney and a trustee of a revocable living trust. While a comprehensive estate plan typically includes both a durable power…
You have heard the common estate planner saying, “make sure your beneficiary designation forms are filled out!” Yet, one of the most critical and often overlooked aspects of the estate planning process is properly filling out a beneficiary designation form after creating an estate plan. Beneficiary designation forms are filled out for retirement accounts like 401(k)s, IRAs, and even pensions…
How to Protect Separate Property in Estate Planning Estate planning in California can be complex, significantly when differentiating between separate and community property. This distinction is crucial for ensuring your assets are distributed according to your wishes. In this blog post, we’ll focus on individual property, what it entails, how it is handled in California estate planning, and the steps…
Many people believe that everything automatically passes to their spouse upon their death, regardless of how property is titled or any estate planning documents prepared. In some cases, this may be true. However, there are several situations where this may not be the case, and the surviving spouse may either not receive the property or may experience difficulty gaining access…
Real property is often the most complicated trust asset for trustees to manage. Trustees often want to do their best while also pleasing the beneficiaries, who are often their siblings or family members, and still follow the terms of the trust. This four-part series will discuss common scenarios in our trust administrations involving real estate. To begin this discussion, some…
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…
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…
