Essential Estate Planning Documents

Estate planning is really life planning. We help our trusts & estates clients prepare for all stages of life. First, we listen. Then, we counsel and work with each client to develop a plan that meets their specific life goals — whether it's planning for a family, incapacity planning, preparing for retirement, minimizing taxes, creating a legacy, or ultimately passing on their assets to the next generation. We incorporate basic estate planning tools such as wills, trusts, health care directives, and powers of attorney.

Advanced Estate Planning Techniques

In addition to assisting our clients with their essential estate planning documents, we also advise clients on complex estate planning situations involving estate tax and gift tax considerations and complicated wealth transfer objectives. Examples of such advanced techniques include family limited partnerships/family limited liability companies, generation-skipping trusts (GSTs), charitable remainder trusts (CRTs), irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), and grantor retained unitrusts (GRUTs).

Trust & Estate Administration

Carrying out a decedent’s wishes and managing fiduciary duties to beneficiaries can be daunting. We advise trustees, executors, and personal representatives in California regarding their trust and estate administration responsibilities under the governing instruments and state law.