Disputes between widows and their stepchildren are among the most common type of estate battles. These can involve will and trust contests, accusations of elder financial abuse, deed revocations and much more. In many cases, tensions between stepmothers and...
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Month: January 2018
Tips to help you with your executor duties
If you are the executor of a loved one's will, you might have a challenging job ahead of you. The duties can often be time-consuming and usually include protecting the decedent's assets until it is time to dissolve the estate and distribute the remaining property to...
Adverse possession rights could cause your estate trouble
Your loved one passed away, and you had to immediately clean out his home. It wasn't more than a few months later when you realized that while the home sat empty and you worked out the arrangements for it, someone else moved in. You don't know who it is, but now you...
Keeping your California estate out of probate
One of the reasons that many Californians put an estate plan in place is so that their heirs can avoid probate. Probate is basically the legal process of settling an estate. The probate process in California can be costly in time and money. It can take as long as two...
How a living trust can benefit Californians
Many California estate planning attorneys recommend that their clients set up living trusts. There are a number of advantages for your heirs if you place your assets in this type of trust while you're still alive. They help keep your estate out of probate -- a process...
Why ‘death cleaning’ should be part of your estate planning
The Swedes have a word --"dostadning" -- that literally means "death cleaning." This unpleasant term refers to something that many people do as they get older and downsize to a smaller home or assisted living facility. It's getting rid of things you don't use, need or...
Signs that a loved one should consider assisted living
There may come a time when a loved one, such as a parent, is no longer able to care for him- or herself. As disappointing as this may be, you need to do the right thing by helping this person make sound decisions regarding their future. You may come to find that...