I am teaching at a local community college’s paralegal studies program. I teach Estate Planning for Paralegals. It’s a basics class. It’s also a master class (of sorts) on estate planning for paralegals. Everything that a paralegal needs to know.
At the community college level, many students sign up for these kinds of courses and this [...]
Estate Planning, Southern California Attorney
Category Archives: Estate Planning
Quicken WillMaker Review
Just the Facts, Ma’am
It is hard to remind everyone that the basic estate planning documents do indeed apply to everyone. I qualify that with everyone over the age of 18.
Everyone should have the following and I am going to start backwards:
Advance Health Care Directive — in California, this is the document that allows you put down your wishes [...]
Estate Planning on the Cheap?
What do you think?
The students taking my class on estate planning at Cerritos College as part of their paralegal studies knows all about the dangers of doing their estate plan themselves. They started the semester with a “I can do it myself” attitude and now after exploring the ins and outs of estate planning all [...]
Standard of Care: Quick Analysis for Estate Planning Attorneys
Estate planning attorneys must always be cognizant of issues surrounding capacity and incapacity of their cilents when preparing and executing estate plans at their client's direction. Here are some recent thoughts about standard of care required by an estate planning attorney for review and consideration. It's also a good reminder to get your estate planning [...]
Alone? How about some EP documents as preventative medicine?
I made a court appearance regarding a conservatorship matter earlier this week. We represent a conservator who is a friend of the conservatee. What happened to the conservatee — she's a nice lady in her late 60s and lives alone. Her family lives in Europe. Her friends and acquaintances are modest here in California. So [...]
Kids and Estate Plans. No Excuses.
I am constantly amazed at how many parents do not have an estate plan in place to protect their minor children.
It's one thing not to be overly concerned when your children are older, but if you have minor children in your home, life insurance policies, real estate and the usual extended family with grandparents, [...]
Immortal Fame: Publicity Rights, Taxation, and the Power of Testation
Joshua C. Tate, Assistant Professor, Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law, has written numerous scholarly articles involving the area of estate planning and related matters. We are fortunate to receive notification when he has released new articles. For more information about Joshua's articles, click on his name under the link below. It will run [...]
Great Analogy About Eating Delicacies and Your Estate Plan.
A Friday funny, perhaps? This topic was circulating on one of my email groups for solo and small firm attorneys. It's a great point being made about going to someone who has the proper credentials (i.e., an attorney) and has experience (in doing estate plans).
Thanks to Mitchell Matorin, Massachusetts litigator extraordinaire, and E.J. Hong, an [...]
Back to Basics.
I was talking to a well respected CPA who handles large estates (meaning large enough to have to file a federal estate tax return, which as of this year 2009 means an estate with a value of more than $3.5 million dollars) as a majority part of her accounting practice. While she was married, she [...]
Trustees for Blended Families.
Estate planning is a must for blended families. Families where there are children from a prior marriage or a relationship need estate planning to make the parents' wishes known and protect all of the children involved accordingly. A three-way marital trust is often advised for blended families.
When setting up a three-way marital trust, one [...]
