When a person dies, the decedent’s loved ones must deal with the decedent’s property. The first question the decedent’s family members need to ask is: did the decedent have an estate plan in the form of a Will or a Trust?
If the decedent did have an estate plan, the terms of the Will or
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Hi, this is Keith Davidson at Albertson & Davidson. And in this video, I want to discuss step-parents. And I don’t mean to disparage step-parents, there’s a lot of very good step-parent and step-child relationships out there. But, there’s also some
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This is Keith A. Davidson from Albertson and Davidson. In this video, I want to talk to you about the differences between Wills and Trusts. A lot of times people think that Wills and Trusts are the same thing, that they’re
I get calls every week from California 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.
I usually suggest the following. First, send a letter
Nobody Likes Motions to Compel:
Plaintiff attorneys don’t like them because they aren’t paid an hourly fee to draft them; Defense attorneys don’t like them because they know how effective these motions are at slicing through their procedural gamesmanship; and Judges don’t like them because these motions take up valuable court time with juvenile spats
I’ve blogged before about using the concept of undue influence to overturn a California Will or Trust. But knowing the definition of undue influence is only the first step. To make the concept of undue influence useful, you have to know how to prove the existence of undue influence in a Court of law. That
An interesting case, Diaz v. Bukey, was decided on May 10, 2011 by California’s Second Appellate District pertaining to the issue of whether a mandatory arbitration clause in a trust applies to a trust beneficiary. Justice Steven Z. Perren, writing for a unanimous Court, held that the beneficiary of a trust who did
Trust and Will lawsuits often provide different paths to the same destination. My client, a trust beneficiary, recently filed a lawsuit against a trustee of a California trust for financial elder abuse, and at the same time sued for undue influence to set aside the Trust amendment created at the hands of the Trustee/Abuser. In
California Form Interrogatory 15.1 (an “interrogatory” is just a question) is the most important interrogatory to serve on your opposing party in a lawsuit. And the law requires they answer it fully and completely. Yet, so many attorneys refuse to answer the question properly.
A typical use of 15.1 follows:
You file a Trust Contest
Fifty years ago, most assets passed from an individual who died to his or her family by way of Probate (by Will or Intestacy both of which require Probate). Probate is a strict, expensive and time-consuming Court process that must be completed before assets can ultimately being transferred to family members.
But today, we own