Choosing Your Successor Trustee
The Successor Trustee will collect and manage your assets, pay your debts, and decide when and how your trust assets will be distributed to your beneficiaries after you pass away.
California Slayer Statute – You Can’t Profit From The Will If You Kill!
The California Probate Code has a statute that punishes those who commit a felonious killing of another human being. This is known as the California Slayer Statute. When the killing of another is considered a felonious act, the person who commits the felonious murder of another cannot profit from the victim’s estate.However, if you kill somebody in self-defense or commit justifiable homicide, this would not be considered a felonious killing and the person would be entitled to any gifts left to them under the victim’s [...]
How to Avoid Probate
Many people feel strongly about avoiding probate at their death. You may think that a Last Will is something that family members handle among themselves after you pass away. Everyone pictures a scene out of a movie or TV show where the executor reads the Will to the family, and then proceeds to distribute the assets in accordance with the Will. The truth is that the process is never that simple. Unless your estate is valued at less than $150,000, the Probate Court must be [...]
Why Estate Planning is Important to You
Do you have an estate plan? You should have a carefully conceived estate plan which allows you to decide how your assets will be handled when you pass away or become incapacitated. You've probably spent a great deal of time and energy accumulating your assets, and a good estate plan will help protect your interests once you no longer are able to. Failure to properly plan your estate can leave your family’s property vulnerable. And the larger your estate, the more critical it is to plan [...]
What is a Durable Power of Attorney?
What is a Durable Power of Attorney? A durable power of attorney allows you to manage your property and financial affairs in the event that you become disabled or incapacitated. Unless you have a properly drafted power of attorney, when you become incapacitated or disabled, it may be necessary to go to court and have a guardian or conservator appointed to make decisions for you. This conservatorship process is usually lengthy and expensive as well as being emotionally draining. There are two types of durable [...]
Advance Health Care Directives – What You Need to Know
An Advance Health Care Directive allows you to make health care decisions for yourself and let those wishes be known when and if you are incapacitated and unable to communicate your wishes.A "Living Will" and "Power of Attorney for Health Care" are similar documents used in other states, but in California, the Advance Health Care Directive (“AHCD”) is the estate planning document that is used to let your wishes regarding medical decisions be known.One of the most important aspects of an AHCD includes the power [...]
Top Ten Reasons to Create an Estate Plan—and How to Get Started
With an estate plan, you can:Provide support and financial stability for your surviving spouse or partner, children, and grandchildren.Preserve your assets for later generations.Make sure your wishes are carried out when you can no longer manage your affairs. It's important to have both a power of attorney and an advance health care directive.Support a favorite charity or cause with a gift of money, securities, or other property.Distribute assets in a timely fashion, with a minimum of legal hassles.Minimize taxes and expenses that can go along [...]
Grandma’s China
Grandma had the most amazing china. Her three adult grand-children continued to fight over who would get grandma’s china when she passed away. It wasn’t the house, the car or the money that her three grand-children bickered about, but rather the source of the commotion was Grandma’s fine china, routinely used to serve dinner on the most special of occasions. Unlike financial assets, which can generally be divided easily among your heirs, tangible personal property is unique. And the complications associated with distributing a lifetime’s [...]
Revocable Living Trusts in California
Revocable Living Trusts are used by individuals and couples in California to avoid having their estates subject to probate. In California, if your estate’s market value is over $150,000, it will most likely be subject to probate. A Revocable Living Trust can help you avoid probate. What is a Living Trust? Revocable Living Trusts allow you to retain full control over trust property while you are still alive. After your death, the property in the trust is transferred quickly to your beneficiaries without the [...]
Whitney Houston’s Death – Estate Planning Lessons
The death of pop star Whitney Houston should serve as a reminder to make sure that when you set up a revocable living trust you properly fund that trust; and that you update your estate planning documents every couple years. Whitney Houston’s sad story is an unfortunate, but educational example of what should be done with an estate plan. While it is too early to know all aspects of Whitney Houston's estate when she died, the six-time Grammy winner, who died February 11, 2012 at [...]