Will your estate be subject to estate taxes at the time of your death? That may not be so clear. After all, Congress seems intent to keep changing the estate tax laws. In recent years, the estate tax has been set to apply only to estates that exceed $5 million in value, with an
Trusts
Time To Object To Your California Trust Or Will Lawsuit
When faced with a Probate Court Petition that you do not agree with, you must object. Luckily, in California you have some leeway on when you can object because our Probate Code allows interested parties to object orally at the initial hearing. In other words, you technically do not have to have a written…
Undue Influence: Convincing a Person NOT To Act
Can you unduly influence someone NOT to take an action? In nearly all Trust and Will disputes, an undue influence claim is brought to overturn a Trust or Will that was executed while the elder was unduly influenced. But not every Trust and Will case turns on action, sometimes inaction can be just as…
Can You Disinherit a Bad Trustee? The Tricky No-Contest Law in California Trust and Will Cases
The ever confusing Trust and Will no-contest clause is continually being used and abused in California Trust and Will lawsuits. The irony is that a beneficiary is rarely, if ever, disinherited under a no-contest clause any more because the law is favorably skewed to prevent forfeiture. In other words, no-contest clauses simply do…
How a $2 Billion Deal Turned on a Little Known California Trust Provision.
Mommy Dearest…Can She Disinherit Me Under California Law?
Can your mom or dad disinherit you under California law? Do they have to notify you if they change their Trust or Will provisions? Do you really have to be nice to your parents? In this video, Keith Davidson describes the law relating to whether or not you can be disinherited by your parent.
Don’t I Need to Know? Must your parents tell you about California Trust changes?
It can be surprising to learn that a parent made a major Trust revision and never told you about it. In this video, Keith A. Davidson discusses whether your parents have a duty to tell you about Trust changes.
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What Are You Waiting For? Don’t sit on your rights to contest a California Trust or Will
If you think you have been wrongly disinherited from an estate, please do me a favor and act quickly. I cannot tell you how many people I have talked to who have great claims, or rather HAD great claims, only to find out that they waited too long to bring a lawsuit to enforce their…
Broken Promises: Are Oral Promises to Make a California Trust or Will Enforceable?
Is an oral promise to make a will or trust enforceable under California law? Contrary to what many believe, California law provides for the enforcement of oral promises to make a will or trust.
How does the promise to make a will or trust arise? Generally, a parent orally promises a child, a friend, or…
A Fight from Start to Finish: How a California Trust can go from bad to worse…and then to Court
There’s Trusts that run smoothly, there’s Trusts that have a few problems, and then there’s Trust where everything is a fight from start to finish. Which Trust sounds most like yours?
- Smooth Sailing. This is the way Trusts are supposed to work. The successor Trustee takes over management of the Trust, the assets are
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