As I have said before there it is amazing how many questions are answered in the California probate code relating to California probate, trusts, estates, estate planning, and related matters.  I have an interesting case right now where there is confusion with some poorly written terms of a trust and there is no successor trustee named in […]

Who should administer your California probate? If you don’t have a named Executor in your will then it falls to the California probate code and generally then to the order of preference laid out in probate code section 8461. I have pasted that section, in it’s entirety, below.  Notice “any other person” is at the […]

There are so many reasons why a trust remains unfunded or only partially funded at death. I have talked about it before. The most common situations are: 1) re-fi or reverse mortgage taken out before death. The house is usually removed from the trust to complete the loan and the title company does not put […]

I represent a lot of executors, administrators, trustees and personal representatives (collectively we will call them a “fiduciary”) in California probate and trust and administration cases.  Likewise I sometimes represent a beneficiary in a case. That is I make sure that the beneficiaries or an “heir at law” is represented so that the fiduciary does their job properly. […]

Being an expert on California Heggstad petitions, pursuant to California Probate Code section 850, I get a lot of lawyers asking me questions about Heggstads. That’s ok. I don’t mind. A lot of times the other lawyer realizes it is a complex petition that they should leave to the experts. In other cases I help […]

Getting divorced (but not merely separated) automatically changes your will. It does NOT revoke your will in it’s entirety though. It just takes out your ex-spouse. However, what if your ex-spouse’s kids are the back up beneficiaries… then what?  Yes, they would take under your will.  The bottom line is you should review your estate […]

I recently spoke to a client who had an interesting situation. Their father died with very few assets. Maybe the total was $5,000. One of the assets was a timeshare with no value but ongoing maintenance fees. Nobody in the family wanted the timeshare and they didn’t know what to do. I told them roughly […]

A difficult situation that often falls between the cracks is how do you get into the safe deposit box after death. Here are my notes from my 2010 NBI seminar I gave on the probate process. Additionally, below that are the two most relevant code sections on safe deposit boxes.  Contact me with questions.  -John […]

Below are my notes from my 2010 presentation on probate from start to finish.  Again, this was an all day presentation for other attorneys about the probate process that was given by NBI (National Business Institute) a leader in continuing lawyer education.  I was one of the features speakers for the day.  This section below is […]

Here are some of my notes from a lecture I gave in Sacramento in 2010 to other probate and estate planning attorneys. These notes were in the materials distributed to other attorneys at multiple locations throughout northern California.  There is nothing that refines ones skills as an attorney like giving a lecture to one’s peers.  These […]