http://estateplanblog.com Estate planning, administration, and litigation in California Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:00:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en From time to time, our office receives a call from someone who has been a client (or was a client of one of the two firms whose files I've taken over) who wants to see a different attorney. Sometimes this is because they live too far away to easily travel ... http://estateplanblog.com/index.php/2009/09/28/want-to-pick-up-your-file/ There are two other, slightly more cynical, reasons I don't do free consultations. The first is that there are some people in the world who have a lot of time on their hands, and as a result think their time isn't valuable. These people also seem to think that my time ... http://estateplanblog.com/index.php/2009/09/15/free-consultations-part-2/ One relatively common question our receptionist gets on the phone is "Can I have a free consultation?" Our firm policy is that we do not do free consultations. I understand that people don't necessarily know what they want or need before they learn more about estate planning that people may want ... http://estateplanblog.com/index.php/2009/09/14/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-free-consultation/ If you'd like to see the documents filed so far in the Michael Jackson probate matter, here they are: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16974369/Michael-Jackson-Probate-Filings. In brief, Michael Jackson's parents are asking the court to appoint Katherine Jackson (Michael's mother) as guardian of his three children, as administrator of his estate, and as a special administrator ... http://estateplanblog.com/index.php/2009/06/30/michael-jacksons-estate-planning-or-lack-thereof/ Clients frequently ask "Can I change my living trust by crossing things out and writing in new parts? The California Court of Appeals answered that question last week: not if you want your changes to stick. In Cory v. Toscano, the person who created the trust gave "(a) To Elaine [last ... http://estateplanblog.com/index.php/2009/06/12/handwritten-changes-to-wills-or-living-trusts/ I ran across an interesting question today - is a California probate necessary when someone dies as a resident of another state, but they have an account in a California bank? If the decedent used a revocable ("living") trust, and changed the title on the bank account to reflect trust ownership ... http://estateplanblog.com/index.php/2009/05/27/california-bank-accounts-for-out-of-state-residents/ A recent post discussed the problem created by estate plans that aren't updated to take advantange of recent changes in tax laws - or were never drafted with actual human beings in mind, just the tax code. Specifically, it's pretty common for a living trust for a married couple to mandate ... http://estateplanblog.com/index.php/2007/03/28/what-if-you-dont-know-if-youll-want-to-fund-the-bypass-trust/ A recent California court decision illustrates the importance of reading carefully and paying attention, even when signing apparently harmless documents. In Hogan v. Country Villa Health Services, a California appellate court enforced an arbitration clause in admission documents for a skilled nursing facility, signed by an elderly woman's daughter upon ... http://estateplanblog.com/index.php/2007/03/16/healthcare-power-of-attorney-form-can-create-unintended-consequences/ A common questionI encounter concerns the administration of a joint trust after the first spouse has died. In California, a typical living trust estate plan will take the form of a joint trust, which splits into two (or three) subtrusts when one of the spouses passes away. The typical model is ... http://estateplanblog.com/index.php/2007/03/14/is-funding-the-bypass-trust-optional/ A California appellate court issued an opinion on February 22, 2007 in Young v. McCoy 2007 Cal App Lexis 224 which will provide encouragement and comfort to trust creators who seek to preserve assets for their beneficiaries. The court ruled that a creditor cannot force the trustee of a discretionary trust ... http://estateplanblog.com/index.php/2007/03/12/california-court-upholds-asset-protection-for-trust-beneficiary/