Family Law

• Guardianship
  This is the court process of appointing guardians for a minor child. The court will appoint a person to serve as guardian of the person of a minor child, and will also appoint a person to serve as guardian of the estate of a minor child. The guardians are responsible for accounting to the court regarding the status of the guardianship at least annually.

Business and Corporate Law

• Business Disputes

Health Law

• Personal Injury
  Estate Planning and creating Trusts is all we do. It’s all we’ve done for over 25 years. We spend every day of our week helping people with their estate planning, not jumping from business law to personal injury to Estate Planning. Our clients and their families will tell you we know what we are doing having proven ourselves through countless real life Estate and Trust Administration scenarios.

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  Search the internet and your eyes glaze over as you see the dizzying array of attorneys capable of writing a will and “helping you” with your Estate Planning.
• Wills
• Trusts
  At its core, a Trust is simply an agreement to hold property for the benefit of an identifiable person or entity- the beneficiary. The agreement is typically between the owner of property, the Settlor or Trustor, and the person that the owner designates to manage the property, called the Trustee. There are many types of trusts- testamentary trusts, irrevocable trusts, charitable trusts-but the most common trust is the revocable living trust. A revocable living trust is an agreement entered into between a Settlor and Trustee to hold assets for the benefit of identifiable beneficiaries. Like a corporation, a trust is an artificial entity that is allowed to own property. The Settlor transfers the title of all of his or her property to the trust, putting it into the fiduciary care of the Trustee. During the Settlor’s life, the Settlor is also usually the Trustee and beneficiary, which is completely legal, provided that the Settlor has also designated residual beneficiaries of the trust following his or her death. The trust is also revocable, which means that the Settlor has the power to amend or completely dissolve the trust at any time. This has several benefits, the greatest of which is the fact that trust property, even though completely controlled by the Settlor and Trustee, is technically owned by the trust and not the Settlor at the Settlor’s death, thus leaving the Settlor with nothing in his or her estate and avoiding the time, expense and frustration inherent in the probate process. When the Settlor dies, the terms of the trust clearly state who should serve as Trustee, who should receive the assets of the trust, and the powers and duties of the Trustee in administering and distributing the trust assets. It serves all of the same functions as a Will in probate court; however, the administration of a trust is a completely private matter with no court supervision required provided that it is correctly funded and not contested. However, trusts are more sophisticated instruments that are much riskier to create than Wills and therefore should always be drafted and funded with attorney assistance.
• Power of Attorney
  This is a common question because the two documents sound similar; however, they serve completely different functions. The function of the Will is described above. A living will, on the other hand, is the letter of instructions to a person’s designated health care agents and physicians detailing the person’s health care wishes, particularly the extent of allowable resuscitation measures, withholding of food and water and any specific instructions relevant to religious or other personal beliefs. It used to be that the Living Will operated in conjunction with the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care to appoint a health care agent and give instructions. Most states still use these documents. However, in California we now use the Advance Health Care Directive, a document that combines the Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care into one. This document is an integral part of any estate plan.
• Probate

Finance Law

• Tax Law