Entering the world of Wills, Trusts and probate can be confusing. One of the first questions people often ask is: what is the difference between a Trustee and an Executor? To put it simply, a Trustee is the person who oversees a Trust, while an Executor is the person who oversees a Will, which often
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
The probate process is probably one of the most archaic procedures we still have in our legal system. Probate simply means to prove-up a Will—it’s the process where a Will is determined to be valid by the Court, it is then “admitted” to probate (as we say), an Executor is appointed and the administration of
There is an old saying in the law that goes “first in time, first in right.” For Wills, the opposite is true—last in time, last in right. Typically the last valid Will wins. But what if the last Will is not valid? That could allow an earlier Will to apply instead. And it is this
One of my first litigation cases was against attorney Thomas W. Dominick in San Bernardino County Probate Court. Tom is one of the best estate and trust litigators in California. To say the least, I was scared. The issue in that case revolved around whether my client had a right to his girlfriend’s real property after
In an earlier post we described what probate is and that it only applies to assets titled in the name of the decedent at the time of her death. Now we want to discuss how to start the probate process (it’s just a court process after all).
Handling a California probate can be summed up
Here’s a situation we see often: Sally dutifully creates a California Trust, and at the same time signs a “general property assignment” to the Trust, which states in effect, “I, Sally, hereby assign, transfer and convey to myself as trustee of my trust, all my right, title and interest in all property owned by me