More than 10 percent of people who are acting as caregivers for an older family member are doing so from a distance. Living an hour or more away from an aging parent or other relative can present some additional challenges for caregivers. Among those challenges are the financial strains of hiring help and the difficulties […]

When an elderly parent reaches the point where they need assistance with their daily living tasks, caregiver duties often fall on the shoulders of their adult children. In some families, the caregiving responsibilities are divided between siblings or other relatives. Ideally, everyone sharing in those duties will be on the same page when it comes […]

With the number of COVID-19 cases in America increasing exponentially, people across the country are preparing themselves for every possible scenario. As a result, many estate planning attorneys are being inundated with calls and emails about how to plan for this type of pandemic. While the following five tools are essential for estate planning at […]

Intellectual property—ideas or works of art that have value but don’t originate in material reality—are considered personal property and may be bequeathed to heirs. There is well-established law on intellectual property and estate law for those who want their heirs to benefit from the fruits of their labors. If you’re creating an estate plan that […]

Self-made billionaire Warren Buffet once famously said, “You should leave your children enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they can do nothing.” Commodore Vanderbilt’s grandson, an heir to some $60 million in 1885, also once declared that “inherited wealth is as certain death to ambition as cocaine is to morality.” It’s […]

When a loved one passes away, the grief is often overwhelming and exhausting. Your emotional state may make it nearly impossible to carry on basic functions like sleeping or eating. Silicon Valley probate lawyers understand that the last things you’ll feel like tackling are the legal or financial tasks that must be handled after an […]

Whether you’ve been asked to be the trustee of a loved one’s trust or you’re in the process of choosing someone to act as your own trustee, it helps to understand what is expected of a trustee. Being a trustee involves a lot of responsibility, often on both a short-term and long-term basis. Keep in […]

Bay Area estate attorneys know that it’s not inherently bad if your son-in-law or daughter-in-law receives your child’s inheritance. After all, he or she is part of the family. Ideally, if an in-law ends up with the family’s money (say your adult child passes away first), it’s always the hope that the in-law will pass […]

If you’re in your twenties or thirties, you’ve probably heard about the importance of creating Wills and Trusts… but maybe you think you’re too young for estate planning or that you don’t have enough assets yet to justify putting a plan in place. But Bay Area estate planning attorneys will tell you that it is […]

After you complete the process of creating an estate plan with your Santa Clara estate lawyer, you’ll want to give serious thought about the place where you will store your original documents. Unfortunately, if your original documents can’t be found after you pass away, it could be presumed that you died without leaving a will […]