Legal agreements governing medical and nursing home care are an often overlooked estate planning issue. If you have a relative that requires 24-hour nursing care, you need to be aware of how certain actions may affect his or her legal rights. For example, many nursing homes insist their residents sign…
There is an important distinction in estate planning between a power of attorney for financial affairs and an advance directive, also known as a power of attorney for health care. Both documents fulfill a similar purpose – appointing an agent to act on your behalf when you are incapable of…
For previous generations, disposing of your property at death meant dealing with physical assets and intangible wealth such as cash or stocks. Today we also need to think about digital assets as part of our estate planning. Just think about how much of your life is kept online, from your…
A living trust is a common California estate planning tool that helps you avoid probate. In theory a trust is relatively straightforward. You sign a document creating the trust and naming a trustee–usually yourself during your lifetime–and then transfer various assets into the trust. For major items like your home,…
A legal separation or divorce can have a profound effect on your estate planning. Under the California Probate Code, a “surviving spouse” has no inheritance rights if there is an “order purporting to terminate all marital or registered domestic partnership property rights.” Put another way, if you die without leaving…
Doing business with family members is always complicated. It can get even more complicated if one family member dies before a business transaction is completed. Most of us are understandably reluctant to push a legal matter, even one involving estate planning, when a relative is ill or possibly dying. Unfortunately,…
There was a time when only legitimate children–i.e., children born to a lawfully married couple–could inherit property from a parent. Modern law in California and most states have largely eliminated the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children, but it can still be an issue in some probate situations. For example,…
If you die without a will, California’s intestacy law dictates how your estate must be distributed. For example, if you are married at the time of your death, your spouse is entitled to a certain share of your property under intestacy. But if you are legally separated when you die,…
The term “trust” refers to an arrangement in which one person holds property for the benefit of another. In estate planning we commonly use revocable and irrevocable trusts as tools to bypass traditional probate. You give your assets to a trustee, who then administers the property for the benefit of…
Not every California estate has to go through a formal probate administration. If you do careful estate planning and transfer all of your personal assets into a living trust, for example, you can ideally leave no probate estate at all. But even if you do not have a trust, if…