With the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last week, many people are concerned that other fundamental privacy rights are in jeopardy. If you are in a same-sex marriage and you are worried about the Supreme Court overturning Obergefell v. Hodges, or if your spouse is a different color than you and you are concerned about the Supreme Court overturning Loving v. Virginia, you may not be able to protect all of your marital rights through the use of estate planning documents, but you can protect some of them.

Death certificates in California will record the decedent’s gender as “female, male or non-binary”

Can I put my foreign assets into a Trust I created at California Trusts Online? Maybe. Maybe not.

By “foreign assets” we mean real property located outside of the United States, shares or equity in legal entities organized under the laws of another country, bank and investment accounts “booked” with a foreign financial institution.

Here are a few common questions about notaries:

Where Can I Find a Notary Public? Can I Notarize My Documents Online? Can a Notary Public Come to Me? Can a Notary Public Witness My Will?

This blog post addresses 5 topics: Definition of Successor Trustee; Role of a Successor Trustee; Importance of a Successor Trustee; Possible choices of Successor Trustees; and Examples.

Many laws go into effect on January 1 every year. Although many new laws went into effect at the beginning of this year, not many of the new laws affect your estate planning.

1.  Not Making an Estate Plan. If you have not created an estate plan, the State of California has one for you. It’s called intestacy, and it may not reflect your wishes and will require your loved ones to open a probate case in court.

Most people want to take care of their loved ones regardless of how much money they may have. Those who are wealthier than others often use Trusts to distribute money to their loved ones in a way that:

1. Avoids the expense, hassle and time of probate;
2. Maintains their privacy; and
3. Helps them avoid paying certain taxes.

No. The term “Trust Fund” is found more often on celebrity pages than in estate planning. Let me explain.

A Trust is an agreement between at least two people concerning certain assets. You need three things to set up a Trust:

1. A person who creates the Trust (the “Trustor” or “Settlor”);
2. An asset that the Trust controls (often referred to as a “Trust asset” or less commonly the “Trust res”);
3. A Beneficiary—the person who will receive the Trust asset.