Legal separation can introduce unique complexities to estate planning. While a separation does not terminate the legal rights of spouses to inherit from each other, it is essential to take additional steps to clarify the situation for your heirs. This blog post explores the implications of legal separation on estate planning in California and provides actionable steps to safeguard your assets and enforce your final wishes.
Edie Ceccarelli, a 114-year-old woman from Mendocino County, California, was recently confirmed as the world’s third oldest person. Her longevity is a testament to her good health and strong spirit, but it also highlights the importance of estate planning.
If you do decide on a trust, you can avoid a lengthy probate process. Another frequently underrated reason is the added privacy a trust offers.
When you use a trust, you bypass probate, a lengthy legal process that validates your will, and you leave precise, legally binding instructions for how to distribute and potentially maintain your assets. Have a beneficiary with special needs who’s ill equipped to manage the inheritance? Bequeathing complex assets that require ongoing attention after you’re gone?…
Guns can be transferred to intended beneficiaries through a special purpose trust. The special purpose Gun Trust will contain the applicable state and federal statutes governing firearm possession and ownership to protect not only the Successor Trustee but also the beneficiaries from liability for possessing a firearm which state or federal law would not otherwise…
Establishing your estate plan including a Living Trust is merely the first step in avoiding probate and allocating your assets to your loved ones on your death. Trust maintenance must follow to fund the Trust with change in assets, life changing events (death, divorce, inheritance, etc.), and occasional changes in law. The most recent change…
California law (Probate Code Section 15212) provides for the ability to leave your assets for the benefit of your animal(s). The following are the key issues that must be addressed when drafting a valid Pet Trust: Definition of the animal(s) covered under the Trust; Caretaker for the animal(s) who is left with detailed instructions and…
What is a Heggstad Petition? Drafting a trust and funding it (changing title to your assets to the name of your trust) is a multi-step process. If a person fails to fund or title his/her property in the name of the trust during his/her lifetime the “Heggstad Petition” (named after a decedent in the case)…
Your Living Trust contains private information. Instead of making every aspect of the Trust public, you can provide a Certificate of Trust to businesses or people you are dealing with on behalf of the Trust. The Certificate of Trust is a condensed document which is used to verify the important features of your Trust, and…
In your thirties, you might still be paying off student loans, and you may think you don’t need to start planning your estate. However, if you don’t have many assets, it may be even more important to plan to make sure what you do have goes where you’d like it to. You see, your net…
