A family meeting about a trust can change quickly. A widowed mother in Orange County may hire the lawyer her family has trusted for years to prepare a living trust and pour-over will. After her death, the children may discover that the attorney named himself successor trustee and directed part of the inheritance to his…
You may be reading this because something feels off. A parent died. A house in Orange County is tied up in a trust. A sibling who became trustee won't answer basic questions. Or a real estate professional handled sale proceeds, made decisions behind closed doors, and now the numbers don't add up. In Los Angeles…
A daughter comes into my office after her father dies. She's trying to do the right thing. She has his rental records, a stack of bank statements, and a growing sense that something is wrong. Rent checks went into his personal account. Security deposits seem to have been used to pay ordinary household bills. One…
Your phone rings. A relative has died, the family is grieving, and then someone says, “You're the executor.” In that moment, the role can feel like an honor and a burden at the same time. Individuals appointed under a will in California often have no prior experience with probate cases. They don't know what papers…