The latest buzz amongst seminar givers, article writers and cocktail party know-it-alls, related to estate planning, is why you do not need a living trust. Or at least that is how many people hear it! With the tax changes of 2013 each of us can now give away up to $5million when we die without tax. Congress […]

INTRODUCTION I was presented a really interesting hypothetical recently. I thought it would make for a good blog post as there are a lot of intricate turns. It gets into issues of how to hold title, how to distribute assets between husbands and wives, and how small estate options work after death. HYPOTHETICAL In this […]

INTRODUCTION It seems a day does not go by without speaking to a potential new client regarding their parent’s trust not being properly funded. There are different reasons this happened but the end result is they need to hire an attorney. This blog post focuses on the interplay of the small probate estate and funding […]

EXPERTS AND SPECIALISTS Every “probate lawyer” you talk to says they are a probate “expert” or a probate “specialist.”  Of course few really are.  When I say that I mean it because 1) I was a former Sacramento Bee probate “expert” when I wrote for the Bee and 2) I am a Certified Specialist in […]

OBJECTING TO A NOTICE OF PROPOSED ACTION In a recent blog post I explained what happens in the probate real estate process. That postfocused on how to respond to a notice of proposed action. Now, let’s take it a step further and talk about what happens AFTER YOU OBJECT TO A NOTICE OF PROPOSED ACTION…. […]