In California, if the Decedent had less than $166,250 in personal and real property combined, you can collect the assets without a full estate administration. The manner that you will collect the small estate will depend on the type of property the Decedent left. Each of these methods is intended to be much less costly and quicker than a full estate administration. Please note that each of these summary procedures have limited use. If you are doing any of these procedures

How to probate an estate in California should you be brave enough to attempt the process.

A recent California Court of Appeal decision, Carne v. Worthington (4/13/16), shows how disputes over trusts can happen if one is not careful in executing and recording property deeds to transfer property into a trust. Had the decedent merely recorded the proper deed his estate could have saved years of litigation time and tens of thousands in litigation costs. This case involved a dispute over the ownership of real property located on Via Regla formerly owned by decedent

The untimely passing of music superstar Prince was a shock to all who grew up with his music. As an attorney, one of the first things you assume is that he most certainly had extensive estate planning. He was surrounded by attorneys and money managers who would have pressured him to plan. Prince owned copyrights to his music, had a valuable public brand and name, and had an estate large enough to be subject to estate tax. The Los Angeles Times reported that Prince's est

Technology is making it easier to save and share information and the probate and estate administration world is no different. Clients can use Excel spreadsheets, Dropbox and other file sharing tools with us and beneficiaries. The New York Times recently had an article "Online Tools Can Ease the Burden of Being an Executor of an Estate" and it recommended an interesting online database tool called EstateExec that has gotten good reviews. It is an interactive tool that allows

Many clients understand the concept of going to court or "suing" someone, and that a lawsuit can result in a trial before a judge or jury. However, not as many know that (i) in probate courts, which hear all estate and trust disputes, there is no jury, and (ii) there is a strong preference among the probate court judges that the parties attempt to mediate a matter before a trial will be scheduled. What is mediation? Well, in a non-legal sense any negotiation between two peop