After a parent passes away, there is a long list of things to handle, and the homeowners insurance policy may not be the first thing that comes to mind. The house is still standing, the premium may already be paid, and no one is living there, so it can be tempting to leave the policy […]

Your most responsible child may live in London. Your sister may have retired to Italy. The person you trust most to handle your affairs may be thousands of miles from California. Families are increasingly spread across states and countries, which raises an important estate planning question: Can someone who lives outside the United States serve […]

Setting up a trust for your children in the Bay Area is one of the wisest moves a parent can make. Then comes the question nearly every family answers in about ten seconds: At what age should the kids get the money? Most people say 25 or 30 because it sounds responsible, and the conversation […]

Somewhere in almost every family, there is a check that changed things. Fifty thousand dollars toward a son’s first house. Help with a daughter’s business. At the time, nobody wrote anything down, because writing it down felt cold. But for families going through probate in Santa Clara, that unwritten money often becomes the single ugliest […]

The word irrevocable makes most people flinch, and we understand why. It sounds like locking a door and throwing away the key. But for many families exploring irrevocable trust planning in Santa Clara, that lock is exactly the point: What you cannot easily undo, others cannot easily take. Used thoughtfully, an irrevocable trust is less […]

When someone passes away, their bills do not go away. The mortgage still comes due, the electricity stays on, and the insurance premium arrives on schedule. Yet the person who always paid those bills is gone, and the accounts that would cover them may be temporarily out of reach. Families ask us about this gap […]

Many people spend real time and care getting their will just right, then assume every account they own will follow those instructions. The surprise is that some of your largest assets do not listen to your will at all. Retirement accounts, life insurance, and certain bank and investment accounts pass by beneficiary designation, and the […]

Families are more spread out than ever, and one question comes up in our Santa Clara office all the time: My son or daughter lives across the country, so can they still handle things for me? The short answer is usually yes. The longer answer is that distance changes the job, and a few adjustments […]

Most parents start with the same instinct to divide everything evenly. For many families, that works beautifully. For others, an even split quietly ignores real differences, like the daughter who spent years providing care, the son who already received help buying a home, or the child who runs the family business. Equal and fair are […]

If you have a will, you may feel like your family is all set, and that is a completely reasonable thing to believe. Most people assume a will keeps their loved ones out of court. We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but a will is actually the document that sends an estate […]