Most of our readers remember the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Even if you don’t recognize his name, you likely saw him in one of the many movies he did, including “Hunger Games,” “Doubt,” “Charlie Wilson’s War” and “Capote.” Hoffman died in 2014 of a fatal mixture of drugs. The Oscar-winning actor was found with a syringe still in his arm.

Hoffman had done some planning for his $35 million estate. He reportedly had a certified public accountant draft his will. In it, he left all of his money to his girlfriend to care for the couple’s three children. He did not want to put his children’s money in trusts because he didn’t want them to be “trust fund kids.” However, his will did stipulate that he wanted them to have access to the arts and other cultural opportunities available in major metropolitan cities.

As one California estate planning attorney notes, however, he could have saved his loved ones a considerable amount of money and potential conflicts had he done things differently. Most people don’t have multimillion estates when they die. However, there are lessons to be learned from Hoffman’s estate planning.

If Hoffman and his girlfriend had married, according to the attorney, he would have saved her about $12 million in estate taxes. Of course, marriage isn’t for everyone. However, he could have provided for her with a personal asset trust. That would have helped protect her from potential lawsuits and claims by others against his estate as well as estate taxes paid by her survivors when she dies.

He could also have provided the same protection for his children via trusts. If you don’t want your children to inherit considerable wealth before they’re mature enough to handle it, you can designate how much will be given to them at specific ages, going well into adulthood.

No matter what size your estate is, why give a portion of it to the government via estate taxes, income taxes and probate costs if you don’t have to? It’s important to sit down with an experienced California estate planning attorney to discuss your wishes for your spouse, children and other loved ones as well as the legacy that you want to leave. He or she can work with you to draft an estate plan that will help you do that.

Source: Kiplinger, “Philip Seymour Hoffman’s $12 Million Estate Planning Mistake,” John M.Goralka, accessed July 26, 2017

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Americans are staying single for longer — often through their 20s and into their 30s. Often single people don’t have any kind of estate plan in place, particularly if they have no children and don’t yet own a home or have significant assets.

However, even if you opt not to yet draw up a will, there are a couple of estate planning documents that you should have in place to protect you, ensure that your wishes are respected and save your loved ones considerable stress, time and money should you become incapacitated and unable to speak for yourself. That can happen in a blink of an eye in a car crash or due to some other injury.

Many young people, to the extent that they even contemplate this possibility, assume that their parents will be able to take care of their financial obligations and make health care decisions for them. However, they can’t do this for adult children unless they’ve been granted legal permission, which is either given by their child in advance or they go to court to get it.

One estate planning expert recommends getting a health care proxy and durable power of attorney to give the person(s) you designate the authority to handle these two important areas.

Often, young people choose to designate one or both parents or perhaps an older sibling as their POAs. Some prefer to name their significant other. Just remember that if you and that person break up, you’ll likely want to change that.

An experienced California estate planning attorney can discuss your individual situation with you and help you determine what documents you should have in place and what other steps you should take to best to ensure that your wishes are carried out.

Source: Morningstar, “Estate-Planning for Singles,” Christine Benz, accessed July 19, 2017

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Most California residents want to spare their heirs the difficulty, time and costs associated with probate proceedings. There are a lot of different strategies one can employ to eliminate the need for probate. One way involves the elimination of probate for specific assets, and it involves the use of joint property.

Let’s say you own a classic Mustang convertible and you’d like your grandson to receive the vehicle after you’re gone. However, you don’t want your grandson to wait through probate proceedings to get access to your car. By giving your grandson joint ownership of the vehicle, when you die, the car will automatically be his, and it won’t have to go through probate.

How joint property works to avoid probate

You can establish any piece of property as jointly-owned between you and another person with the “right of survivorship.” In California, there are two primary ways to establish joint tenancy or joint ownership that offer the right of survivorship:

Joint tenancy with the right of survivorship: This is the most common form of joint ownership — for non-married people — in which two people have equal ownership of a property, and in the event that one of them dies, the living partner automatically receives full ownership.

Community property: Another way to establish joint property rights is to get married. In California, since it’s a community property state, getting married means that when you die, all of your marital property will go to your spouse. It is therefore important to draft a will if you wish for specific assets to go to specific people other than your spouse. In the case of those special assets, you might want to create a joint tenancy with the right of survivorship, but first it will be important to gain agreement from your spouse to remove those items from the marital estate.

Consider every contingency when creating your probate avoidance plan

California residents can do more than establish specific property as joint property to avoid probate for their heirs. For example, special trust accounts can be devised to protect more assets from probate. The more you know about probate avoidance strategies, the better you’ll be able to select which strategies are most appropriate for your and your family’s needs.

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If you’re remarrying and haven’t yet created an estate plan, now is the time to do so. It can prevent issues among your children, new spouse and previous spouse if you pass away or become incapacitated to the point where you’re no longer able to speak for yourself.

If you already have an estate plan, good for you! Now you need to look it over with your estate planning attorney to make any necessary changes to reflect your new circumstances and prevent the problems noted above.

We all want to assume that our family members will handle things fairly and be generous to one another after we’re gone. However, that’s not always the case. Following are a few things that you should consider, although there are likely more, depending on your individual situation.

One common source of conflict in blended families after a parent dies is the kids’ inheritances. Too often, because they combine assets with a second spouse, parents unintentionally disinherit their children. The widow or widower gets all of the jointly-owned assets and may or may not choose to share them with their stepchildren.

By putting assets that you intend your children to have in trust accounts, you can ensure that they will receive them. If both spouses have kids, they should each take that step.

Spelling out what happens to the family home if you die is also important. If you want to ensure that your new spouse can keep the home if you die, you can put it in a trust and designate that.

If you owe alimony and/or child support to your former spouse, or you just want to make sure that your ex gets a certain amount of your estate when you die, you should discuss with your estate planning attorney how best to do that. It’s generally a good idea to keep some of your assets separate from your new spouse’s so that you can designate what happens to them when you’re no longer around.

While estate planning isn’t something that most people enjoy including in their wedding preparations, it can prevent headaches, legal battles and added expenses for your loved ones later on. Sit down with your California estate planning attorney before you tie the knot again.

Source: Forbes, “Second Marriage And Estate Planning: 5 Things You May Not Have Considered,” Mark Eghrari, accessed July 11, 2017

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Dissatisfied family members have attempted to challenge wills ever since their creation as a tool to make one’s end of life wishes known and pass on property to heirs. It is, in many ways, a fixture of the process for many families.

These days, however, the notion “I deserve this particular piece of property, it’s my birthright!” carries far less weight than do the terms of the will and the federal and state-level laws that govern estate planning and will execution.

Does this mean that you cannot challenge a will? No, you may still have grounds to challenge a will, but those grounds are much more narrow than many people seem to think they are. Furthermore, depending on the construction of the will itself, challenging a will may mean choosing between an inheritance you don’t prefer and no inheritance at all.

Understanding standing

Standing is a tricky concept, made more so by the fact that it can change subtly or significantly from district to district. In broad strokes, a person who has standing may challenge a will, whereas a person who does not have standing cannot. The difficulty here often lies in determining whether or not you actually have standing according to the specific laws governing our region of California. To fully explore these specific laws and examine the strength of your potential challenge, it is wise to consult an attorney with years of experience practicing in and around Torrance.

In broad strokes, you probably have standing if the will you wish to contest names you, or if you would have inherited something if the decedent had not had a will at all. This generally implies direct heirs or named beneficiaries, but some other exceptions exist.

In many cases, creditors or parties who hold some claim against the decedent’s estate may also challenge a will.

However, if you are, for instance, a lifelong friend of the decedent, or if you are the cousin of the decedent, you probably do not have grounds to challenge the will.

Know what you stand to lose

When considering a challenge to a will, it is crucial to learn whether or not the will contains any “no contest” clauses. No contest clauses create a barrier of risk to anyone who might challenge a will by creating as-written-or-nothing terms on an inheritance.

If you choose to challenge a will that contains “no contest” language, you may not receive anything if your challenge fails. While many states waiver on enforcing no contest clauses, California generally does honor them, so you must do all the necessary homework to determine the strength of your challenge before moving forward. The most recent no contest legislation primarily aimed to weed out frivolous challenges by frustrated heirs.

If you still wish to proceed, build a strong team

While challenging a will is not as easy in California as it is elsewhere, it is still possible in some circumstances. To determine whether or not yours are those circumstances, there is no substitute for consulting with an experienced professional who intricately understands contesting legal agreements in Torrance.

Your team can help you prepare a strong case for the challenge and ensure that you abide by numerous regulations and deadlines throughout the process.

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Many of our readers recall the bitter dispute between Casey Kasem’s wife and his adult children in the year prior to his death. The former American Top 40 host was suffering from Lewy body dementia, among other medical conditions.

Kasem’s three oldest children from his first marriage were battling with his wife Jean over their father’s care. In 2013, the Kasem children went to court to seek more access to their father and decision-making ability over his health care.

In May 2014, they were granted the right to move him from the Santa Monica nursing home where he’d been living up to Washington State. A judge also ruled that, as outlined in Kasem’s 2007 health directive, his daughter Kerri could have more say in his care. A later directive, drawn up in 2011, had given that power to his wife of more than three decades. The following month, the legendary 82-year-old host passed away.

The family’s legal battles continued. The following year, the same children who had fought to care for their father as well as their uncle sued Jean Kasem. Although the Los Angeles district attorney’s office hadn’t found enough evidence to charge Mrs. Kasem with neglect or elder abuse, the Kasems claimed that her neglect had hastened his death. That case is still pending.

Last month, Jean Kasem filed a lawsuit against the three Kasem siblings and others for wrongful death, fraud and negligence. She accuses them of perpetrating a “homicidal guardianship scam” related to Kasem’s treatment after they moved him. She also claims that the elder Kasem children wouldn’t allow her or their daughter to be with him at the end.

Kerri Kasem responded to the allegations that they let their father die, saying, “Everything we did was court-ordered….we tried everything we could to save him.” She also says they asked both Jean and her daughter to join them at their father’s bedside. She asserts that Jean has filed the suit “only to get the media going again.”

Jean Kasem is seeking compensation for medical and burial expenses, lost income, her husband’s pain and suffering and other costs and damages.

While this is certainly one of the more public family battles we’ve seen recently over a loved one who can no longer speak for himself, they happen all too often. It’s essential to have an experienced California estate planning attorney on your side.

Source: Los Angeles Times, “Casey Kasem’s widow files wrongful-death lawsuit against his three eldest children,” Christie D’Zurilla, June 22, 2017

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Even people who don’t have a will or estate plan can designate a beneficiary on their bank accounts. This is known in the banking world as a payable on death (POD) account. It prevents the account from going into probate and allows the beneficiary to have access to the funds simply by presenting the death certificate of the account holder.

If you’re the beneficiary of a POD account, it’s essential to understand what the tax and other financial ramifications are to you before you do anything with the money. It’s wise to consult an estate planning attorney to help prevent any negative unintended consequences. These may include:

– Paying an inheritance and/or federal or state estate taxes. – Determining how much you have to report on your income taxes vs. how much per the deceased person’s estate.

Generally, the beneficiary of a POD reports the value of the account on the date of death.

Another issue that beneficiaries of POD accounts may need to deal with include any of the deceased person’s outstanding debt or bills and paying them out of the POD account they have inherited. This often depends on whether the beneficiary was a co-signer or guarantor on any of the outstanding debt.

The best advice for anyone who inherits a POD account is to consult with the deceased person’s estate planning attorney if he or she had one. If not, it’s best to seek experienced legal guidance in California or whatever state the deceased person lived in. It may also be wise to seek guidance from a tax professional to help minimize any penalties and maximize the funds you inherited, which is likely the intent of the person who left the account to you.

Source: The Balance, “What Happens to a Payable on Death Account When the Owner Dies?,” Julie Garber, accessed June 15, 2017

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Many Californians don’t consider developing an estate plan until they have a child. Then, the primary consideration is often who will be that child’s guardian(s) should both parents pass away or be unable to care for their offspring.

That’s certainly not something that anyone wants to consider, but it could happen in the blink of an eye in a car accident, plane crash or other catastrophic event. Even if you have parents and siblings who love your children and would make good caretakers, by failing to codify that, your loved ones could well end up in court fighting to be appointed guardians.

Naming a guardian isn’t about choosing your best friend(s). They may be fine people, but would they raise your children with the values you want them to have? It may be a good idea to avoid each of you naming your best friends as co-guardians. (See the romantic comedy “Life as We Know It” for an example of how messy that can be.)

Once you’ve decided on the people to whom you want to entrust your child, it’s essential to talk with them and make sure that they are agreeable to this. It’s not the same as being a godmother or godfather. It’s a legal commitment to raise a child.

The other thing you need to do when developing a will or estate plan to ensure that your child is cared for is to set aside money for that care and perhaps for the child as he or she gets older. This is generally done via a trust. No matter how much faith you have in your designated guardians, you can and should place stipulations on what the trust money can be used for.

For people who have never dealt with a will or any kind of estate planning, this process can seem daunting. However, experienced California estate planning attorneys can guide you through the process and help you make sure that your new baby’s future is as secure as possible if anything happens to you.

Source: Morningstar, “Estate-Planning Musts for New Parents,” Christine Benz, accessed June 27, 2017

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A debilitating injury or illness can occur at any time, even to young and seemingly-healthy people. When people are no longer able to look after their own interests, whether due to dementia or some other condition, and they don’t have an estate plan designating someone to do so in their stead, it may be necessary to set up a conservatorship.

Obviously, as estate planning attorneys, we recommend that people have an estate plan in place to ensure that their wishes are carried out and to save their family unnecessary costs, time and stress. However, if that hasn’t been done, we can assist you with initiating conservatorship proceedings.

Under California law, a judge has to agree that the “conservatee” is unable to care for him- or herself. This often requires evidence submitted from a doctor and possibly a psychiatrist regarding a person’s physical and/or mental capacity.

At The Probate House L.C., we understand that seeking a conservatorship for a loved one is a painful process. We help people here in California as well as the rest of the country when their loved one lives here in our state.

Ultimately, the goal for those who seek a conservatorship for a loved one as well as for the court is to protect the conservatee from financial as well as other types of abuse. If you become a conservator, you will need to file a care plan, and the conservatorship will be monitored by the court.

Someone does not have to be elderly or incapacitated for a court to approve a conservatorship. Pop princess Britney Spears’ financial life is reportedly still controlled by a conservatorship with her father at the helm after some troubling public behavior a decade ago.

At The Probate House L.C., we can provide experienced legal guidance based on California law, regardless of the circumstances. Review our website for more information on our estate planning services.

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Creating an estate plan can be a challenging process. This is even more so the case if you have a child who is under the age of 18.

If you find yourself in this situation, you need to ask yourself a very important question: Who will care for the child in the event that you and your spouse pass away? This is not something that anyone wants to think about, but it’s the responsible thing to do.

Here are several tips to follow when it comes time to choose a guardian for your minor child:

— Make a list of potential options. You don’t want to overlook the right person, so it’s a good idea to list out each and every person who may be able to serve as a guardian. You will only choose one, but it all starts with a comprehensive list.

— Learn more about the person’s values. What values does the person have? Do you want these to be passed along to your child? These are the types of questions that can lead you toward the right guardian.

— Financial stability. You don’t want to choose somebody who lacks the financial resources to care for your child. As you know, raising a child is not cheap. The person you select as guardian should be financially stable, as expenses will arise time and time again.

— Talk it over with your choice. It is one thing to say that you want to name someone the guardian of your minor child. It is another thing entirely for this person to agree. You should talk about the finer details before finalizing this in your estate plan.

These are just some of the many tips you can follow when it comes time to choose a guardian for your minor child.

Since this is one of the biggest decisions you will make with regard to estate planning, don’t hesitate to consult with an attorney. This can go a long way in putting your mind at ease and allowing you to realize that you are on the right track. If you have any questions or concerns, you know your attorney can step in and address them in a timely manner.

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