I often write about bad celebrity estate planning as examples about what can go wrong when important decisions are overlooked or only casually addressed.  I have several posters in my office of celebrity estate planning mistakes: Elvis Presley’s unnecessary taxes; Marilyn Monroe’s accidental “gift” of the rights to her likeness to a woman she never met; John Denver’s simple failure to designate a beneficiary on his pension that cost his family millions of dollars; and Thomas Kincaid’s handwritten will attempting to leave his fortune to his mistress instead of his wife.  

Sadly, the latest example of poor celebrity estate planning comes from music legend Prince.  Several reports have indicated that Prince did not have a will.  Family members have filed a petition to probate his estate which will be administered and distributed pursuant to the “intestate” laws of Prince’s home state, Minnesota, which may or may not be in accordance with Prince’s wishes and will nevertheless create unnecessary expense and delay.

When establishing a living trust, you essentially have two options for how your beneficiaries will inherit your assets.  One option is to allow your beneficiaries to inherit outright and free of trust.  This means that after your death, once your estate is settled, your assets will be distributed out of your trust and to your beneficiaries individually.  The trust at that point will not have any assets left and will therefore be terminated.  Your beneficiaries will own their share of your trust in their own names as if those assets belonged to them all along.

The television show, Grey’s Anatomy, first aired when I was a young attorney.  The show, created Shonda Rhimes, stars “Meredith Grey” but is of course named after the famous medical textbook, Gray’s Anatomy, by Henry Gray, a surgeon from the Nineteenth Century.  As a lawyer, I wondered what would be the legal equivalent of Gray’s Anatomy?  The best I could come up with was Black’s Law Dictionary, the most popular dictionary of legal terms which was created by Henry Campbell Black and first published in 1891.  

I decided that if I ever wrote a legal drama, I would indeed call it Black’s Law Dictionary.  The show would star “Bing Black,” a charismatic and debonair estate planning lawyer who helps people solve their problems without any drama or strife.

My five-year-old son is a sports-fanatic.  His primary sport is and probably always will be ice hockey.  Since he was two years old, I have been taking him on the 160-mile round trip journey to San Jose, the location of our nearest ice rink, once and sometimes twice a week.  As a result of that […]

I believe in the importance of making general legal concepts accessible to my clients.  While nothing can replace working directly with a qualified attorney, clients should be involved in the process on a macro level in order to make the best decisions for themselves and their families.  However, lawyers often struggle with explaining complex legal […]

My favorite aspect of practicing law is teaching legal concepts to my clients.  My mother was an elementary school teacher, my father was a school principal, and my grandfather taught Czech at the Defense Language Institute.  Clearly, teaching is in my blood.  At one time, I considered getting a Ph.D. in English literature and teaching […]

It is often hard to estimate how much you will have left when you pass away.  What might seem like a robust estate now can easily be reduced by years of medical expenses, long term care costs, and pharmacy bills.  Some estates are reduced to the point of being insolvent, i.e., there are not enough […]

When Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers gets to the line of scrimmage, he often will “call an audible,” a change in play at the last moment that will supersede the play originally agreed upon as the result of a change in strategy due to unexpected circumstances.  In an earlier article (“Contingency Planning,” dated […]

If you die without a legally valid estate plan, the California Probate Code has certain “intestate provisions” that govern how your assets shall be distributed.  In general, if you were married at the time of your death, your community property and at least a portion of your separate property will be distributed to your surviving […]

Every January, I travel from the moderate climate of the Monterey Peninsula to the frozen lakes of Minnesota to participate in one of the largest pond hockey tournaments in the country.  While most “snowbirds” are escaping the winter, I’m gleefully jumping into it. As a hockey fan growing up on the Monterey Peninsula, it is […]