Keith Davidson discusses how to amend your California Trust.
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In Trusts we Trust: When should you create a Trust in California?
I have heard it a million times before: “I don’t need a Trust because ____________” you fill in the blank: I don’t have enough money, I won’t care when I’m dead, California probate is easy, my wife and I own everything in joint tenancy…there’s many, many excuses and misinformation regarding Trusts in California.
In California
Estate Taxes: An Uncertain Future
Death may be certain, but estate taxes are not. At least not at the end of 2012 when the current Estate Tax exclusion of $5.12 million is set to expire and be automatically reset to $1 million. With proper planning, married couples can combine their exclusions for a total amount in 2012 of $10.24 million.
Will and Trust Creation: The basic requirements of California Trust and Will creation
Keith A. Davidson describes in this video the basic requirements for creating a California Will and Trust. He refers to the basic creation elements as “formalities” and “intentionalities”, terms he uses in teaching California Will and Trust creation at Chapman Law School (which he borrowed from his own Trust and Will professor, Father O’brien (thank
Give a Little After You’re Gone: The benefit of charitable giving at death.
Most of us are not capable of giving billions to charity, like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates But charities, to be successful, don’t need billions (they’d love to have billions, I’m sure, but most operate on far less than that).
Most people make modest charitable gifts to their favorite charity, university or church during their lifetime.
Meet Albertson & Davidson, LLP: Why we practice law as California Trust, Estate and Probate litigtion lawyers
This video post is our informal discussion of why we practice law. It is important for us to know our purpose in practicing law. In fact, we put our purpose on the first page of our website, and we talk about it constantly. For those viewing this blog by email subscription, you can click
Tired of the Retirement Mess: How Failing to Plan for Retirement Accounts = Planning For Litigation in Your Estate
If your goal is to help keep lawyers employed (and that’s an excellent thing to do in my opinion), then do not change your beneficiary forms on your retirement accounts when you do your estate planning.
By retirement accounts, I mean things like 401(k), 403(b), Pension, and IRA type accounts to name a few. These
Business Agreement: Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say
When you practice in the area of Trusts and Wills, you are often called upon to resolve other legal problems that pertain to clients’ assets such as business law, real property law, family law, etc. So here is a post discussing a few business issues I have dealt with recently. This same post was published in our
The Asset Puzzle – Why Your California Will May Not Matter.
The manner in which assets are titled govern how those assets pass at death. And this can override a disposition contained in a Will or Trust. All the effort people take to prepare a Will or Trust can be wasted if assets are not titled properly. This is what I call the asset puzzle.
The
Estate Tax Reduction Passes
As a follow-up to yesterday’s blog post, the House of Representatives passed a package extending the Bush-era tax cuts for two more years and substantially revising the estate tax.
Writing for the Non Profit Times, Mark Hrywna reports that had Congress not acted, the estate tax would have returned to its 2001 rates beginning