When someone dies with a trust, the successor trustee is required to marshal and manage the trust assets in accordance with the terms of the trust. In addition, the trustee has the responsibility to notify the beneficiaries of the death of the
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The Internal Revenue Code imposes a significant tax on the transfer of a person’s estate by gift during life or at death. However, every person has a credit against the estate tax which exempts roughly $11,200,000 of gift/inheritance transfers. In the case
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Happy New Year! January is upon us again. It is a new year and new decade! Don’t wait to complete your estate plan, start now so you can start off the year with the peace of mind that you have this task
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Our firm often prepares estate plans for blended families or for spouses that each have children from separate relationships. In blended families, spouses often elect to set up an estate plan where on the death of the first spouse, the surviving spouse’s
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It is not unusual for an estate planning attorney to come across an estate plan that clients drafted themselves. Drafting your own estate plan, although possible and cost-effective, is something estate planning practitioners advise against. There are numerous reasons to seek legal
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The Uniform Prudent Investor Act of the California Probate Code sets forth specific rules regarding the duties and responsibilities of a trustee when managing and investing trust assets. Under the Act, a trustee has a duty to diversify the investment of trust
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The Federal Estate Tax law provides every person a credit against payment of the estate tax. At present, that credit allows a person to transfer up to $11,400,000 without paying any estate taxes. If married, both spouses have the same credit. The
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When planning your estate, the question of who to appoint as your trustee can be a difficult one. After all, this is the person that will administer your estate at your death, which includes marshaling your assets and property, paying any bills,
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A Special Needs Trust (SNT) is a trust designed to preserve government benefits for disabled individuals. There are two types of SNTs: (1) a first-person special needs trust which shelters an individual in possession of funds received either through a settlement or
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It is not uncommon for estate planning and probate attorneys to encounter cases where an individual dies without a Will because they believed that everything they have will go to their beloved cousin- the only family they ever knew or that is
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