Message from the Chair

Welcome to the Trusts and Estates Section!  If you are a California lawyer who is not yet a member of the Section, I encourage you to join and find out what we have to offer!  If you are a current member, thank you for your membership!

Nearly 6,000 lawyers belong to the Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association (CLA). Our members have a broad variety of practices, including planning, administration, conservatorships, and litigation, and we enjoy a multi-generational mix of new and experienced attorneys.

The Trusts and Estates Section Executive Committee (TEXCOM) is comprised of 38  attorneys who each serve a six-year term.  TEXCOM works to advance the practice of trusts and estates law in California by educating attorneys, promoting scholarship, and improving our statutes through the legislative process. Applications to join the Executive Committee are accepted every year in early spring.  Section members also may participate by volunteering to serve on one of TEXCOM’s subcommittees.

TEXCOM edits and CLA publishes the Trusts and Estates Quarterly, the premier law journal for California trust and estate law.  Trusts and Estates Section members receive delivery of the Quarterly in hard copy and can access it digitally on the CLA website.

TEXCOM’s Education subcommittee produces monthly MCLE webinars, focused on issues relevant to your practice, as well as periodic live seminars and presentations around the state. Section members receive a discount to all webinars, as well as periodic complementary passes to webinars featuring nationally known speakers.

Our Membership, Marketing and Social Media subcommittee prepares Case Alerts on new cases, which are emailed to all Section members, posted to this website and our Facebook, and LinkedIn pages.  We also produce Trust Me! – a podcast covering an eclectic and interesting mix of topics related to trusts and estates. 

Every year, TEXCOM’s Legislation subcommittee reviews every single bill introduced in the California Legislature to determine if it affects the practice of trusts and estates law.  We follow relevant bills and provide our support, opposition, or technical comments to the authors as necessary. The Quarterly then reports the year’s relevant new legislation, including TEXCOM’s role in the process, in its annual legislative update.

TEXCOM also drafts legislative proposals and works with our elected representatives to help pass them into law.  TEXCOM sponsored the Uniform Directed Trust Act, as well as the Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act, both added to the Probate Code in 2024.  Before that, TEXCOM worked to amend Probate Code section 21385 changing the presumption of undue influence created under Lintz v. Lintz (2014) 222 Cal. App. 4th 1346, as well as Probate Code sections 21380 and 21611, protecting elders from caregivers. 

TEXCOM selectively submits Amicus Curiae Briefs on topics affecting the development of the law of trusts and estates.  TEXCOM submitted CLA’s first amicus brief and participated in oral argument at the California Supreme Court in Barefoot v. Jennings (2020) 8 Cal.5th 822.

Please let us know if you have any ideas for a TEXCOM project, or if you would like to get more involved with our work.  We thank our existing members for their support, and we invite all California lawyers who are looking to build or enhance their trusts and estates practice to join us!

Michael Rosen-Prinz
Chair, Executive Committee of Trusts and Estates Section

Contact Us

Trusts and Estates Section
California Lawyers Association
400 Capitol Mall, Suite 650
Sacramento, CA 95814
TrustsAndEstates@calawyers.org