History Heggstad petitions are named after the California court case, Estate of Heggstad. Mr. Heggstad created a living trust and identified the assets he wanted in the trust by filling out a schedule of assets attached to his trust. Unfortunately, Mr. Heggstad died before he could retitle those assets into the name of his trust. Wanting to avoid a full probate…
In a famous quote by Benjamin Franklin, “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Now taxes are not fun; however, they are certain, and there are many different kinds of taxes. In estate planning, we deal with several different types of taxes, and people often mix them up. Here we will lay out the different types…
When completing any estate planning, including a trust, will, power of attorney, or health care directive, the person signing the documents must have what is called “capacity” in order to sign the documents. There are two kinds of capacity in estate planning: testamentary capacity and contractual capacity. Testamentary capacity is a lower form of capacity and is required by a…
Effective January 1, 2022, California Probate Code Sections 15800 and 16069 are amended by Assembly Bill 1079. The law changes affect trustees who assume their role when the settlor or trustor (the trust’s creator) becomes incapacitated. Typically, the person or persons who create a revocable living trust hold power to revoke the trust. However, when a person dies, their revocable…