Plain-spoken answers to the questions families ask us. These articles are educational material, not legal advice, and shouldn’t be relied on as legal counsel.
After a death in the family, suppose the surviving members are unhappy about the terms of their loved one’s will. Now suppose the will in question is new or was recently updated. Now suppose those disgruntled people believe that the testator (person whose will it is) was somehow coerced into creating these unsatisfactory bequests.
The news media constantly relates stories about celebrities whose lives are affected by substance abuse. Suppose you have a family member with a substance abuse problem and you want to protect him or her from using family assets in a detrimental manner.
Many businesses believe that so long as they pay their annual taxes and any fees to the California Secretary of State, they are maintaining their corporate liability shield. Unfortunately, that might not be the case.
People sign contracts every day: employment contracts, contracts with a new business vendor, contracts for a new mobile phone or a gym membership. And more often than not, it’s done blindly. We either don’t take the time to read them thoroughly or we just don’t understand the legal jargon.
Regular readers of this blog already may be fairly knowledgeable about why establishing a will and often, a trust, is important in establishing your directives for the future. There are many specialized types of trusts, each with its own specific purpose, each with a specific benefit. This blog will focus on the bypass trust.
Revocable Deeds, Enhanced Life Estate Deeds, and Lady Bird Deeds. No matter by what name they are known, this type of estate plan allows a homeowner to “deed” or give their home to their children, known as the “remainder owners,” without the need, expense, and delay of going through Probate Court.
As an estate planning attorney, I am responsible for helping clients choose, create, and legally execute many different kinds of trusts. One example is a “Grantor Retained Annuity Trust”, or GRAT. A GRAT is a type of trust that confers a tax advantage to the recipient of the trust assets.
Regardless if you personally write reviews on Yelp! and other review-based websites or simply read through them on sites for guidance, reviews of companies and their services have been both a blessing and a curse for many small business owners.
All those blended, multi-generational families on TV. How cute are they? And funny! From old-school Brady Bunchers to Modern Families, it’s all about hilarious hijinks, cute and sassy kids, and non-traditional parenting.
For some people, “giving back” is a lifelong commitment, and philanthropy a priority. In my practice area of estate planning, there are several types of trusts that facilitate charitable bequests. Our focus today is on one specific type: Charitable Lead Trusts.
We consider pets as part of the family, so why should we not plan for them accordingly when creating an estate plan? In another blog post, we stated that one of the major estate planning mistakes people make is failing to include their pets in their estate plans.
I’m willing to guess that your first question is, what are CUTMA and UGMA? They certainly sound like names for cavemen on TV. Actually, they are custodial accounts that you can set up for your child to help pay for educational expenses, such as college tuition, in the future. The “C” is for California.