Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Disclaiming Or Refusing An Inheritance: Why Do It And How Do You Do It?
If you stand to get an inheritance, that is, most of the time, good news. And if you are creating an estate plan, you would imagine that whomever you leave your property or assets to, would want that property. But sometimes that isn’t the case. There are times where getting an inheritance isn’t a… Read More »
What Is An Ancillary Proceeding And Will You Need To File One?
When someone dies in the state of California, and a probate action needs to be filed, it is filed in California. That seems to make some sense. But often, things aren’t that simple. That’s because people often have property in other states, even if they live and die in California. Additionally, many people have… Read More »
Planning For And Defining Incapacity In Your Estate Plan Documents
When forming an estate plan and creating estate documents, incapacity plays a big role. You may want to dictate what happens to your property should you become physically or mentally incapacitated. You may want to leave property to beneficiaries, but do something specific with that property in the event your beneficiaries become incapacitated. Whatever… Read More »
Benefits And Risks Of Transferring Property Into A Trust
The use of trusts is a vital, important and very useful aspect of estate planning. Generally, trusts can be used to accomplish almost every kind of estate planning goal—they can avoid probate, and give you control over who gets what and when—including outing conditions on the distribution of your wealth and assets. Real estate… Read More »
Don’t Forget These Things If You Are A Trustee
If you are creating an estate plan, there is no doubt that a vital part of that plan is the creation of trusts. There are no shortages of the kinds of trusts that you can use and there is surely a trust that can accomplish whatever your estate planning goals may be. But there’s… Read More »
Who Pays Your Creditors After You Pass Away?
If you are doing estate planning, you probably intend that your beneficiaries will get whatever you designate that they get in your will, trust or other estate document. But what about your creditors? Do your beneficiaries or surviving family have to pay your creditors? No Automatic Debt Unless they are on the debt—that is,… Read More »
Aretha Franklin’s Family Goes To Court Over Multiple Wills
Although rock and blues legend Aretha Franklin died in 2018, the debate over her estate is apparently just beginning. Franklin’s relatives are headed to court, to debate about what she wanted to happen with her sizable estate. No Formal Will Like many people, Franklin died without a will. By some accounts, she was hesitant… Read More »
Decanting Lets You Modify Irrevocable Trusts
There are a number of benefits to having an irrevocable trust. Because you cannot just use the assets of an irrevocable trust, or turn an irrevocable trust into a revocable one, neither can creditors, making it a very good creditor protection idea. There’s a Tradeoff But with those benefits of an irrevocable trust comes… Read More »
Can You Disinherit A Spouse In California?
You may already know that in California, spouses will be entitled to get a share of your estate, no matter what you say to the contrary in most estate documents. It isn’t easy to disinherit a spouse—that is, to keep them from inheriting anything from you. But it can be done. Why Disinherit a… Read More »
Mental Capacity And Competency: What Do These Terms Mean?
When people come into law offices to draft an estate plan, one thing that an attorney must look for is whether or not the person making the estate plan is competent to do so. Competency By “competent,” we don’t mean that the person understands the nuances of the law, or any evaluation of the… Read More »