Estate Administration & Probate

When a loved one, such as a parent, passes on, it can be difficult to pick up the pieces and move forward with your life. Even so, you need to know what's expected of you to ensure that everything is taken care of in the appropriate manner. This means many things,...

When creating an estate plan, there may come a time when you need to choose a will executor. Conversely, you may one day find that you are responsible for taking on this task. Either way, it's imperative to understand the responsibilities of a will executor. This way,...

As a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to ensure that your children are provided for both today and in the future. To that end, you may have taken steps to execute an estate plan that not only appoints guardians, but also identifies your assets...

Are you in the process of creating an estate plan? If so, you understand the importance of making all the right decisions. While a trust is not the right approach for every individual, it may be something that fits your estate plan. If you are interested in creating a...

Did your mother, father or both parents manifestly ignore all important dimensions of estate planning to such a point that you and other surviving loved ones went through a flatly stressful -- as well as time-consuming and expensive -- ordeal to properly attend to...

A truism regarding estate administration that any seasoned lawyer knows to be flatly true is that a sound plan is fully grounded in due consideration of planning concerns in their entirety. Parsed out just a bit more, that means this: Because the lives of most people...

Planning ahead is really what effective estate administration is centrally about for virtually every individual and family, notwithstanding the differences that naturally occur in every case. In one instance, a planner in Ventura County or elsewhere might be primarily...

David Bowie was known throughout his multi-decade musical career as nearly an illusionist, given his ability to virtually reinvent himself every few years while appealing to a constantly expanding global audience. It turns out that Bowie will now also be recognized...

Acronyms abound in estate planning, just as they do in many other areas of law. Here are a couple: POD and TOD. They mean payable on death and transfer on death, respectively. And what is the exact relevance of those shorthand designations, some readers might ask, and...

A recent media piece points out that many people "prematurely conclude that estate plans are only useful for securing wealth for later generations." On initial examination, it is understandable why some individuals and families in Southern California and elsewhere...