Practice Areas

Practice areas

Estate Planning

We advise clients regarding their estate planning by addressing issues such as who should be named as executors, trustees, and agents; how, when and to whom your estate should be distributed; what conditions should be placed on distribution to certain beneficiaries or of certain assets; tax ramifications of the estate plan and the distribution of retirement accounts; charitable distributions; and business succession. The estate plan may include:

• Will
• Revocable Living Trusts

• Single person trusts
• Trusts for couples
• A/B or QTIP Trusts
• Generation Skipping Trusts
• Special Needs Trusts
• Pet Trusts

• Durable Powers of Attorney for Financial Management
• Advance Health Care Directives
• Beneficiary Designations
• Coordination of your estate plan with your business related documents
• Lifetime gifting

Probate

We regularly represent the executor or beneficiary of an estate upon someone’s demise.  We will help you determine whether probate administration is necessary, or if there is a means of avoiding it.  If there is a means of avoiding probate, we will help you through the necessary steps. If probate administration is necessary, we will assist the executor or administrator throughout the process by preparing the initial petition, guiding the executor or administrator through the legal requirements, preparing the petition for distribution, and assisting with the distribution of the estate.

Trust Administration

We regularly represent the trustee of a trust.  Trustees are responsible for dealing with creditors, valuing assets, filing income tax returns, estate tax returns, and real property-related returns, marshaling and managing trust assets, selling assets such as stock, real property and businesses, resolving disputes relating to ambiguities in the trust, resolving disputes between beneficiaries, and distributing assets to the beneficiaries. The trustee’s job can be difficult and contentious, and can expose the trustee to liability. We will help you avoid the difficulty, contentiousness and liability. Even a simple trust administration has its legal requirements, and we stand prepared to advise you about those and guide you through the process.

Conservatorships

The California Probate Code also governs conservatorships. A conservatorship is a court proceeding brought to appoint someone to manage the person’s health and personal care and/or finances and property. We can assist with the formation of an uncontested conservatorship, and can represent the conservator once the conservatorship has been established.