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 […]

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 […]

Silicon Valley special needs planning lawyers often help parents set up a Supplemental or Special Needs Trust in California to protect their child’s resources and inheritance for the future. When crafting this important document, the attorney will also help their clients choose a trustee who will be charged with overseeing and managing the funds in […]

Creating and building a successful business is an incredibly difficult undertaking—and maintaining that success is usually even more challenging. Protecting that success, however, is a different story entirely. You must consider what will happen if you die or become incapacitated, if your business will be subjected to estate taxes once you pass away, or even […]

When a home is passed on to adult children after the death of a parent, there are three typical paths that beneficiaries can choose: move into the house, sell the house, or rent it out. If you and/or your siblings recently inherited a house and are uncertain about the best way to deal with the […]

Health care directives, which include the Living Will, Health Care Agent Designation, and HIPAA Medical Release, are necessary components of any estate plan. Health care issues occur more and more as we age, so it’s important to have the proper legal documentation in place to ensure we get the care we need. However, mental health […]