Pleasanton estate planning attorney describes how protecting your legacy starts with being proactive. Completing Your Estate Plan is Just the Beginning Creating an estate plan is a major step toward protecting your assets, ensuring your wishes are clear, and giving your loved ones peace of mind. But it's just the beginning of a lifelong process. Most clients instinctively understand this, and one of the most common questions I receive towards the end of a consultation or si

New “permanent” $15 million exemption offers a sense of stability, but also complicates traditional estate planning strategies. With fewer automatic sunsets and more political friction required for future changes, planners and families must reevaluate their assumptions and consider a more nuanced, tax-efficient approach to lifetime giving and wealth transfer.

A new law that took effect on April 1 (Ab 2016) could make it easier to bypass the long and expensive probate process. But while this is a welcome update, there are still much smarter ways to plan your estate such as using a living trust.

In the aftermath of the Pacific Palisades fires, we received many inquiries from concerned clients regarding coverage for trust property.

Pleasanton estate planning attorney explains estate and gift tax rules and considerations for 2025. Keeping step with recent years since...

As described in this article, 2023 marks the highest estate and gift tax exemptions to date.

If you hold real estate in Joint Tenancy with a spouse, and the survivor of you sells a property after a death, you'll be over taxed.

One of the tasks in creating a trust is designating a successor trustee to carry out your wishes when you can no longer act.

Recommended steps to get a basic estate planning foundation in place for a child over 18, so parents can still be involved and help them.

Life insurance is a great tool for estate planning. However, there are nuances that sometimes get overlooked which, if left unchecked,...

"In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes." - Benjamin Franklin When it comes to estate taxes (otherwise referred to as...

Tips on avoiding proposed taxes on income over $200,000 for trusts that that are taxed separately from the trust's grantor/creator.

Instead of focusing on estate tax reform, or the "billionaire tax," the current focus proposes increased taxes on incomes over 10 million.

Bill provisions reduce the Estate Tax Exemption from $11.7 Million down to $5 Million adjusted for inflation. effective next year.

Discussion of the potential loss of the step-up in basis and resulting planning strategies.

Here are four simple and practical tips to lay a proper foundation for future accessibility and use of your living trust based estate plan.

Biden's American Families Plan did not include provisions to expand estate taxes, and instead focused on capital gains.

When a family member inherits a deceased person's home, they typically have rights and options relating to the existing mortgage.

It is critical that your assets be properly integrated with your living trust. Here's how to do it.

There has been a lot of talk lately about estate planning with California real estate after the passage of Prop 19, with the focus being...