So you have a problem with your inheritance, what are you going to do about it? That’s a tricky question because every case is a little (or a lot) different. Mainly it depends on the type of estate planning device you need to overturn, challenge, or validate. For example, if you are dealing with a […]
Every beneficiary of a Trust has a right to information. What do you want to know about your Trust? What the assets are, how much each asset is worth, the expenses of the Trust, the timeline for paying creditors, the need for a preliminary or final distribution? All fair requests to make and it […]
Ask most lawyers in California how hard it is to prove up an undue influence claim in a Trust Contest or Will Contest. The answer is likely to be that it is difficult to prove undue influence in these types of cases. But that’s most likely due to these lawyers thinking about proving an undue […]
Under California Probate Code section 21700 a Decedent can make an enforceable oral contract to make a California Will or California Trust. Here’s how this situation usually arises. There is an older family member—we’ll call him Tom—who needs some additional care for the last few years of his life. Tom reaches out to his best […]
AbbVie, Inc.’s efforts to keep a California Wrongful Death case–Calvillo v. AbbVie, Inc.–from being heard by a California jury took another hit earlier today when the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) vacated its conditional transfer order that would have sent the case from California to a federal court in Illinois. You can […]
Most Bay Area Trustees do not understand the duties they owe Trust beneficiaries. In many cases these Trustees take adversarial positions towards the Trust beneficiaries, which is not allowed under California law. What are the duties that Trustees owe beneficiaries under California law? Glad you asked. In the video below I explain:
Let’s face it, lawyers have bad reputations, including being greedy opportunists, lazy, driving sports cars, and not really caring about their clients’ needs. I think part of that has to do with the surrounding circumstances—almost always bad—when it comes to hiring a lawyer. But our not so good reputations also come from not properly setting […]
I get calls every week from Bay Area Trust, Last Will, and Estate beneficiaries complaining that they can’t get their brother or sister, who is the Trustee and Executor of their parents’ estate plan, to provide copies of the parents’ estate plan after the parents have died. In response to these calls, I usually suggest […]
Trust and Will Contests in Probate Court Traditionally Trust and Will beneficiaries who have been written out of their parents’, family members’, or friends’ Trust or Will were limited to filing a Trust Contest or a Will Contest in a Bay Area Probate Court of the county where the parent, family member, or friend died. […]
I’ve been planning to write more this year about California Trust, Will, and Probate litigation. But I’ve been hesitant to do so because: This is a very complex area of the law involving even more complex fact scenarios, which may or may not apply to a particular case. I’m worried that I may not be […]
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