How Should I Hold Title to My Property?
During the purchase of a new home you will be asked during escrow how you would like to take title to your property. In California, title may be held in sole ownership, or co-ownership. If it is the sole ownership of an individual, a common way to hold title may be as a “single man/woman”, [...]
With summer just around the corner, this month I’m trying to better my health to be in the physical and mental shape desired to best enjoy our warm and active months in San Diego. In May there are many awareness campaigns to help us all better our health, and the health of our loved ones. [...]
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A will is a written document with instructions for disposing of assets after your death. Your will is enforced through probate court. A revocable living trust is an entity you create that can hold your assets for disposition after your death. In both documents you will write your instructions for the disposition of your estate, [...]
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Creating your revocable living trust is the first step of your estate planning. Once you sign your trust, however, there is additional work to be done. A trust needs to be funded with the property you want the instructions in your trust to apply to. Simply attaching a list of your assets as a schedule [...]
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What is Probate? A common goal of estate planning is to avoid probate. But what exactly is probate? Probate is a court-supervised process for gathering a decedent’s assets, paying the decedent’s debts, and distributing the remaining balance to the decedent’s beneficiaries. The process ultimately requires proving a will to be valid, obtaining a court [...]
Continue reading …Estate planning allows you to control your property while you are alive, take care of you and your loved ones if you become disabled, and give what you have, to whom you want, the way you want. It also allows you to save every last tax dollar, professional fee and court cost legally possible. An [...]
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The birth of a child is an important time to begin your estate planning, if you haven’t already. Not only will you want to plan and protect your child’s inheritance, but of more concern may be deciding who could care for your child when you are unable to and incapacitated, or if you’ve passed away [...]
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While recently exploring through The Carmel Valley Life I realized it’s been a year since I have been involved with this wonderful community website. It occurred to me how quickly this past year has gone by, and almost gave me a strange feeling because I can perfectly remember writing my first article about the holidays [...]
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The estate plans of the rich and famous regularly make the news. The battles surrounding Michael Jackson’s estate are no secret, and Whitney Houston’s estate plan (or lack thereof) has received criticism this past year. The newsworthiness of these celebrities seems to indicate that only the wealthy need an estate plan. That couldn’t be farther [...]
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Establishing a very good partnership with your divorce attorney is critical as it has an enormous impact on the process, outcome and cost of your divorce. Take time to carefully pick the best attorney for you. Here are some do’s and don’ts to get you headed down the best path. 1) Before going to see [...]
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Tips to avoid loss of important documents. Imagine your family trying to search stacks of paper in your home to find your estate plan. In those stacks, they find nothing but old bills. They turn to your rolodex and find a business card for an attorney. They call that office in hopes it was your [...]
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I recently returned from a trip to the beautiful country of Costa Rica. One of the things I found most breathtaking about the places I visited was the beauty and tranquility of the beaches; the beach at Manuel Antonio is pictured with this article. I realize it may sound strange to be taken by beaches [...]
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