- Divorce
- Adoption
- GuardianshipNeeds for years. If you have questions regarding how to properly plan for your future, we can help. From guardianships and health care directives to wills and more complex trusts, you can rely on us to prepare your estate, no matter the size.
- KidnappingThe late New York hotel heiress, Leona Helmsley, left an estate in excess of Twelve-Million Dollars ($12,000,000.00) to her Maltese Terrier named “Trouble”. Unfortunately, no Trust was properly established for his lifetime care. Instead, Mrs. Helmsley simply designated her Brother to care for “Trouble”. However, he refused to do so. Thereafter, “Trouble” was given to a caretaker who used a significant amount of the fortune to hire permanent security guards due to the fact that “Trouble” became the target of a series of kidnapping threats. Finally, when “Trouble” died the remaining balance of Leona Helmsley’s estate was distributed to a series of charities.
- Estate PlanningThan 30 years. He has experienced firsthand, both professionally and in his private life, how important proper estate planning can be to a family.
- Wills“Dear Frank: Thank you for your patience in answering all of our Will and Trust questions. We would recommend you to anyone in need of an excellent estate planning attorney...”
- TrustsAnswer: Simply stated, a Will only becomes effective at date of death. It does nothing for you during your lifetime. As a general rule, a Will only governs assets in your name alone, and will usually go through probate at death. By comparison, a Revocable Living Trust is a separate legal document from your Will. It is effective immediately when signed. If you retitle assets into your Trust during your lifetime they will avoid probate and remain private. By comparison, a Will becomes public record at death and is generally filed in The County Clerk’s Office for all to see.
- Power of AttorneyIn another case, I received a call from a concerned daughter, who advised that her elderly mother (i.e. my client) while cooking a holiday meal, accidentally set her condominium on fire. The client who is legally blind now wants to sell the condominium and move to a care center. Unfortunately, the client never followed my instructions for the transfer of her condominium into her Trust. Likewise, when I prepared her estate plan seven (7) years ago, she insisted on having a Durable Power Of Attorney naming two (2) daughters as Co-Attorneys in Fact (i.e. her agents). Likewise, her Trust also names both daughters as Successor Co-Trustees. I discouraged both co-fiduciary arrangements. While granting children equal authority may sound appealing, it is frequently an administrative nightmare. As a general rule, both children must sign all documents, and if they disagree, a dispute resolution method must be found. In this case, each daughter lives in different states, and one daughter changed her name several years ago, as the result of a divorce. Now the title company has refused to honor the Durable Power Of Attorney, thus stopping the condominium sale, because of the name change. The client and her daughters now realize that estate plans, as everything else become unworkable if they are not reviewed on a regular basis.
- Probate
- Tax LawThere are more unmarried than married adults living in the United States today. In California, single individuals have unique planning needs that may need to be addressed even more urgently than married couples. At the San Francisco Bay Area Law Offices of M. Franklin Parrish, we assist single individuals, unmarried couples, domestic partners, and single parents, in achieving their personal and tax planning goals.