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,…
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…
A person is free to dispose of property as he or she wishes by making a will. There are cases in which a person may enter into a written contract to make certain provisions in their will in exchange for certain considerations. For example, a father may promise to make…
Many Californians are self-employed or own their own small business. If you are among this group, it is important to make appropriate provisions in your estate planning, especially if you have partners, employees, or family members who need to continue the business after your death. The type of planning required…
In a typical probate administration, the personal representative named in the deceased person’s will must pay off any valid debts presented to the estate. What if the decedent was already in bankruptcy at the time of his or her death? What happens to the bankruptcy case? Bankruptcy and probate are…
There are a number of small questions you might have about to estate planning. For instance, what happens to your credit cards after you die? Does your estate have to pay the bill? Or can the credit card issuer go after your wife or children to collect the unpaid balance?…
When you set up any kind of trust, it is important to consider the potential relationship between the trustee and any beneficiaries. In a revocable living trust, for example, the person making the trust often serves as the initial trustee. But when that person dies, a successor trustee must assume…