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Trusts & Estates

 

Our Trusts and Estates practice focuses on a wide variety of pre- and post-death planning and administration for individuals and families regardless of their level of financial wealth.  Our firm will compassionately guide you and your loved ones in Estate Planning, Probate, Trust Administration, Trust, Estate & Probate Litigation and Wealth Transfer Planning and Tax Planning.

 

Estate Planning

 

An Estate Plan is a series of documents executed during your lifetime which directs how your assets are distributed and ensures your personal wishes are carried out in the event of incapacity or death.  Our firm will collaborate with you in designing a custom-tailored and comprehensive estate plan that accurately reflects your wishes by drafting the following documents:

 

• Revocable Living Trust – to govern the distribution of your assets after your incapacity or death

• Pour-Over Will – to ensure that your assets will be distributed according to your Trust document and to appoint guardians for minor children

• Advance Health Care Directive – to dictate your medical wishes and end-of-life decisions

• Durable Power of Attorney – to authorize a designated fiduciary to deal with your financial assets

 

With Jweinat & Jajeh LLP, you will provide your beneficiaries and/or family the roadmap to your healthcare decisions, end-of-life wishes and financial matters, while entrusting designated agents the authority to ensure these decisions are carried out to the letter.  Estate Planning is also an effective tool for families and our firm guides our clients towards facilitating family harmony and avoiding infighting amongst beneficiaries.

 

By using pre-marital, post-marital and cohabitation agreements, our firm will guide you and your spouse, domestic partner or cohabitant in navigating and negotiating joint-expenses, child support, alimony and complex, ever-changing interpersonal relationships.   

 

Our firm's dedication to you goes beyond the simple drafting of documents by assisting you and your family with funding your custom Estate Plan through the use of:

 

• Real Estate Deeds

• Corporate and LLC Assignments

• Assignments of Personal Property

• Beneficiary Designation Forms for Bank and Brokerage Accounts

• Other Trust Transfer Forms

 

Probate

 

California Probate is a court-supervised administration of a person's estate when they die with only a will (often handwritten or based on an online template) or without a comprehensive Estate Plan that includes a trust. 

 

During the time-staking and expensive Probate process, a Probate Court judge will appoint a personal representative of the decedent's estate to collect the decedent's assets, pay their debts and expenses and distribute to their estate to their beneficiaries (if there is a will) or to their heirs under California law (if there is no will). 

 

Leaving your estate in the hands of a Probate Court judge (a stranger to the intricacies of your personal life) by not contacting an experienced estate planning attorney causes chaos and confusion to your loved ones and beneficiaries because:

 

• Typical proceedings can take anywhere from 1-5 years

• Probate Court records are easily accessible to the public

• Proceedings are personally and financially invasive

• Opens the decedent's estate to claims from creditors or disgruntled beneficiaries

 

If your loved one's estate is subject to Probate proceedings, our firm empathetically and zealously assesses the need for such a proceeding, represents and facilitates the personal representative's administration of the estate and mitigates the time and expenses required.

 

Trust Administration

 

Our firm will often advise our clients that creating and funding a customized trust is one of the most important facets of a comprehensive estate plan.  Once the trust is established, it requires a fiduciary to manage and administer the trust, called the Trustee.  The person who creates the Trust (called the Trustor, Grantor or Settlor) is also the Trustee during their life.  Upon the death or incapacity of the Trustor, a successor Trustee must administer the Trust according to its terms.  Trust Administration is the process by which the Trustee manages and administers the trust after the death or incapacity of the Trustor.

 

Trust Administration is less time-consuming, expensive and intrusive the traditional Probate proceeding because:

 

• Trust Administration is not accessible by public court records

• The Trustee is legally bound by fiduciary duties to strictly follow the trust’s terms

• The Trustor may choose trusted individuals or professionals to act as successor trustee

• The Trustee will prudently manage the trust’s assets until they can be distributed to your beneficiaries

• Trust Administration is not subject to court supervision

 

Jweinat & Jajeh LLP will guide your successor trustee in complying with California state and federal law, meeting their legal fiduciary duties, and distributing your assets to your beneficiaries and filing the necessary trust accountings, fiduciary income and estate tax return.

 

Unlike Probate, Trust Administration is a far less time-consuming and less-expensive alternative to distribute your assets at the time of your death.  Our firm will provide your family with the relief of knowing that they do not have to navigate post-death administration alone. 

 

Trust, Estate & Probate Litigation

 

Litigation is always emotional and stressful, especially when it involves the death of a family member, friend or loved one.  Jweinat & Jajeh LLP always strives to provide our clients with the least amount of stress while obtaining the best possible result.  

 

Trust Litigation occurs when there is a conflict between the trustee (fiduciary) and the beneficiaries of a trust.  When a beneficiary or group of beneficiaries believes that the trustee is not acting in the best interest of those beneficiaries, or meeting the standards of the trust document, litigation may ensue to clarify the rights, duties and responsibilities of trustees and beneficiaries alike.  Our firm is dedicated to representing trustees and trust beneficiaries, including when the trustee:

 

• Fails to provide an accounting

• Fails to distribute trust funds to the proper beneficiaries

• Fails to communicate with beneficiaries

• Commingles trust assets or uses trust property to pay for personal expenses

• Mismanages trust assets or fails to prudently invest trust property

 

Estate and Probate Litigation, on the other hand, deals with disputes that arise during the Probate process.  Probate is the court-supervised process of administering and distributing the estate of a decedent.  Estate and Probate Litigation often occurs when:

 

• The will is lost, destroyed or no will exists

• A creditor claim is in dispute

• One or more persons dispute the validity of the entire will or a provision contained therein

• Beneficiaries and heirs of the estate were not properly notified in accordance with California law

• The personal representative of the state breached one of their fiduciary duties

 

While there are many reasons that individuals, trustees, beneficiaries and heirs may choose litigation, Jweinat & Jajeh LLP guides our clients to seek the best possible outcome while minimizing the damage and chaos litigation generally causes in the event of death.  

Wealth Transfer and Tax Planning

 

Jweinat & Jajeh LLP is very experienced in navigating estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax liability.  Our firm utilizes some of the most modern, tax-saving estate planning techniques to minimize the tax liability for you and your beneficiaries, including:

 

• Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts

• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILIT's)

• Grantor Retained Trusts (GRT's)

• Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRT's)

• Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRT's)

• Sales to Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts (IDGT's)

• Limited Liability Companies and Family Limited Partnerships (FLP's)

• Dynasty Trusts