Estate planners not only help clients plan for what happens at death. Nowadays, especially with the high divorce rates, trust and estate lawyers also need to be mindful of how certain planning will play out in the event of a divorce.  In t...

What enhanced remedies are parties entitled to recover under Probate Code section 859? Is it double damages, triple damages, or something else? There has been a district split, and now even a division split, on whether parties can receive “doub...

Haggerty vs. Thornton is a case that made its way to the California Supreme Court with an eagerly anticipated decision. This case concerns an area of law that is of great interest to planners, administrators, and litigators: the method of amend...

When does a trust beneficiary’s cooperation with a trustee to modify, reform, or decant a trust become a taxable gift by that trust beneficiary? In late 2023, the IRS Office of Chief Counsel answered that question in CCA202352018. In this episo...

There are many things to consider when choosing a trustee or successor trustee for a trust. The trustee will face a number of challenges over the course of their service and will need to plan ahead to avoid the inevitable pitfalls.  In thi...

When a client passes away, one of the most important items on our to-do list is to file certain tax returns.  In this episode of Trust Me!, we will be discussing an overview of things to consider during the period of post-death administrat...

In this episode of Trust Me!, Bette Epstein discusses the magic of the trust and estate mediation process to informally resolve disputes, which includes party engagement, active listening, patience and problem solving. About Our ...

California just passed a directed trust statute! In this episode of Trust Me!, Michael Rosen-Prinz and David Khanjyan will go over the basic structure of a directed trust, along with the specifics of California’s new directed trust statute....

In this episode of Trust Me!, Kristin Yokomoto discusses ethical considerations in the estate planning world. She covers issues relating to engagement letters, conflicts, communication, capacity and more.About Our Guest:...

Clients have grown to be more charitably inclined and want to incorporate charitable giving as part of their estate plan. In this episode, we discuss the basics of charitable planning, as we review the ABCs of those great acronyms: the CRUTs, C...

What must be, and what should be included, by the trustee of a trust in an accounting? And, who is entitled to receive what kind of information? In this episode, our guest Denise Riley discusses the details of what is required in an accounting....

A revocable trust is an essential part of an estate plan in California. And when clients ask why they need a revocable trust, our answer is always: to avoid probate! We know that probate is time consuming and costly, but have you ever wondered ...

Join estate-planning attorney Elizabeth Bawden and trust-and-estate litigator Matt Owens for a discussion about the Corporate Transparency Act. About Our Guest: Elizabeth Bawden is a partner in Withers Bergman’s L...

Join Deputy District Attorney Scott Pirrello and Estate Planning Attorney Melissa Raneri Karlsten for a conversation about elder abuse, including internet and technology scams that everyone, no matter their age, is being bombarded with on a dai...

Are irrevocable trusts truly irrevocable?  One way to change the terms of an irrevocable trust is by decanting.  In this episode, our guest Michael Rosen-Prinz will be discussing the particulars of California’s decanting statute. ...

Most attorneys are able to identify clients who clearly have mental capacity to make decisions and those who clearly lack such capacity.  But what about the clients in the middle part of the spectrum?In this episode, geropsychologis...

The world is getting smaller and smaller.  As estate planners, we need to be aware of cross-border issues when it comes to estate planning and taxation.  In this episode, our guest Chris Nason will be discussing a basic and practical ...

In January of 2009, the infamous and anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto launched the Bitcoin Network. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, which is a digital asset that lives on a decentralized public ledger, also known as the blockchain. Over a decade...

In this episode, our guests, Marguerite Lorenz, Master Trustee, and Todd Stephenson, estate liquidator, will be discussing the difficulties that are encountered in dealing with personal property after someone has died. This episode is geared to...

Trust and estate lawyers have a keen interest in state legislation.  The California Lawyers Association gives them a voice in Sacramento.  When conservatorships became a hot topic in the Legislature, the Trusts and Estates Section of ...

Private letter rulings (PLRs) are one of many tools that tax and wealth planning professionals can employ to benefit their clients, but many professionals are unaware of the benefits of PLRs or don’t know how to obtain PLRs.  Our guest, S....

Join us for a conversation with neuropsychologist Jonathan Canick about the interplay between aging and an elder client’s capacity to execute estate planning documents.  Aging itself has no direct effect on mental capacity, but ageist ster...

What is a conservatorship? Over the past few years, “conservatorship” has become a popular buzz word and the topic of many discussions in the media. With this new-found attention on conservatorships, California lawmakers have...

In this episode, our guest Josie M. Porras Corporon, CELA, will be diving into the misunderstood world of elder law.  This episode is geared towards practitioners who don’t know what an elder law attorney does and when they need to refer t...

Probate matters and general civil matters can sometimes be seen as operating in two separate worlds.  However, in practice, these worlds often interact with one another.  In this episode, we are covering probate and civil crossover is...