estate planning

Clients, friends and colleagues often ask me "how often should I update my estate plan?" Estate planning attorneys commonly recommend that you review your estate plan documents - i.e., your will, revocable "living" trusts, power of attorney for financial matters, and advance health care directives - at least every five years.

Ryan will discuss a litigator’s perspective to conflicts that estate planners often encounter, including representing clients with mental capacity that may appear impaired, representing clients who want to make a gift to an individual identified in Probate Code section 21380 thereby invoking the presumption that the gift is the product of fraud or undue influence, and representing clients in circumstances where it appears a child or another may have undue influence over them, particularly where there are any questions of favoritism.

Many trustees employ counsel to provide advice on dealing with and responding to inquiries from beneficiaries. Trustees may believe that their communications with and advice from counsel are confidential and cannot be disclosed to the beneficiaries without their consent. The recent court decision in Fiduciary Trust International of California v. Klein (2017) 9 Cal. App. 5th 1184 is a cautionary tale that warns trustees against assuming that all communications with an attorney are confidential.

The internet has brought many advances to our lives. The world wide web, emails, blogs, cloud computing, social media and other online accounts are a common way to communicate with family and friends, manage finances or operate a business.