Inside this Issue:

Tax Planning Using California’s Decanting Statute……………….8
Andrew M. Katzenstein, Esq.
With almost a year of experience under California’s new decanting statute, the author explores approaches to implement decanting in a trust and estates practice and accomplish a broad range of income, gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax savings strategies.

Till Death Do We Litigate That Divorce…………………………….26
Adam F. Streisand, Esq. Meghan K. McCormick, Esq.
The authors guide the attorney through the process of determining whether the family court or the probate court is the proper forum to enforce dissolution judgments and to adjudicate unresolved issues in a dissolution matter when one of the spouses dies.

Barefoot v. Jennings: A Disinherited Trust Beneficiary’s Standing to Bring a Trust Contest in Probate Court Now Teeters Before the California Supreme Court…………………………………………….37
Howard A. Kipnis, Esq.
The Supreme Court granted the Executive Committee of the Trust and Estates Section leave to file an amicus curiae brief on the issues in Barefoot that concern our section members. We are pleased to publish the application and brief in full.

Does Kaestner Have Any Relevance for the Taxation of
Trusts in California?…………………………………………………59
Paul N. Frimmer, Esq.
In the recent case of North Carolina Dept. of Revenue v. Kimberly Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust, the United States Supreme Court held that a state could not tax non-state source income of a trust if the trust’s only contact with the state was the residence of a beneficiary who did not receive any distributions in the tax years in question. In this article, the author reviews the history and current status of California fiduciary income tax law in light of the Kaestner decision.