Our Blog Posts

free rent

If you are a Trust beneficiary do you have the right to live in Trust property rent-free? What if another beneficiary is occupying real property of the Trust, can they do that rent free? Find out more in our latest video.

There’s two ingredients to every good Trust and Will trial lawyer: (1) an in-depth knowledge of Trust and Will law, plus (2) an in-depth knowledge of civil litigation. Many lawyers know one or the other, but not both. That can be a problem for successfully navigating a Trust or Will lawsuit through the Court to […]

frozen assests

Why can’t you just freeze Trust assets as soon as you file your Trust lawsuit? Well sometimes you can, but other times it is not so easy. In fact, in nearly every case you have to start from the point that assets are not generally going to be frozen once a lawsuit is filed. Freezing […]

lawyer

If you have been disinherited, or your inheritance has been stolen from you in some way, you have just one chance to fight for your legacy. But not fighting is also an option, it all depends on what you want to do. A few years ago, a client told me that he wanted to fight […]

law office Practice areas

So your parent dies and you see a Will that names you as a beneficiary. Great, you now have a piece of your parents’ property secured as your inheritance…right? Not so fast. Just because you are named in a Will does not necessarily mean you are entitled to any assets because a Will only controls […]

trustee

If you are the beneficiary of a San Diego Trust that gives the Trustee the power to make discretionary distributions to you, you may have more rights than you think. While Trustee’s can use discretion to make distributions, they cannot refuse to distribute for no reason at all. In this video we describe some of […]

tightrope

Some Trust administrations go smoothly and others devolve into all-out warfare in Court, but somewhere between harmony and all-out war stands troubled Trust administrations. Those are the Trusts where the Trustee and the beneficiaries can’t seem to agree on anything. Where information is not easily shared, decisions are questioned, and everything seems to be hostile. […]

probate file

Trust and will cases are heard in Probate court and there are some strange rules that apply. The rules can be hard to master because some rules for filing and pleadings are contained in the Probate Code while others are taken from the Code of Civil Procedure. This hybrid of rules makes for a lot […]

As if Trust law wasn’t confusing enough already, here’s a little known twist on how to change or simply terminate your revocable Trust. Once a revocable Trust is created, you retain the power to either amend the Trust and change its terms around, or to terminate the Trust altogether (referred as revoking the Trust). But […]

facts

1. Preparation, preparation, preparation Trial is hard work because you have to be prepared. Preparing witness outlines, documents, and other evidence takes more time than you might imagine. Especially when you have deposition transcripts that you want to use because you really need to reference the page and line numbers for the favorable testimony so […]