Trust Me Podcast Season 4

Listen Here The aftermath of the trust litigation brought by beneficiaries against trustees too often results in a malpractice claim against the drafting lawyer.  Listen to Sean McKissick and Kristin Yokomoto discuss the 1958 balancing test applied to lawyer malpractice cases and the messages from the courts in recent cases. About Our Guest: Sean McKissick is a partner at Downey Brand LLP in Sacramento, California, where he specializes in trust and estate litigation.  He serves as the Vice Chair of… Read more

Listen Here Land Back is an Indigenous-led movement focused on returning land to Indigenous Tribes in a way that strengthens Indigenous sovereignty and communities. This episode features a discussion about how Land Back comes up in the context of estate planning and introduces key concepts for estate planners, financial advisors, and tax advisors to assist clients in taking such action.About Our Guests:Alma Soongi Beck is an attorney in  Lathrop GPM Private Client Services Practice Groups. Beck is certified as a… Read more

Listen Here Estate planners not only help clients plan for what happens at death. Nowadays, especially with the high divorce rates, trust and estate lawyers also need to be mindful of how certain planning will play out in the event of a divorce.  In this episode of Trust Me!, we discuss what estate planners should know about the basics of family law. About Our Guest: Vanessa Soto Nellis is a Shareholder and Chair of the Family Law Practice Group of… Read more

Listen Here What enhanced remedies are parties entitled to recover under Probate Code section 859? Is it double damages, triple damages, or something else? There has been a district split, and now even a division split, on whether parties can receive “double damages” under Section 859. Recent case law sheds light on this issue, and the guests on this episode were counsel of record in two of those recent cases, enabling them to share key insights and an overview of… Read more

Listen Here Haggerty vs. Thornton is a case that made its way to the California Supreme Court with an eagerly anticipated decision. This case concerns an area of law that is of great interest to planners, administrators, and litigators: the method of amending trust and whether the method of revocation can be considered the same as the method of amendment.About Our Guests:Jennifer Campbell is a partner at Carlin and Peebles LLP in Southern California. She focuses her practice on estate planning… Read more

When does a trust beneficiary’s cooperation with a trustee to modify, reform, or decant a trust become a taxable gift by that trust beneficiary? Read more

There are many things to consider when choosing a trustee or successor trustee for a trust. The trustee will face a number of challenges over the course of their service and will need to plan ahead to avoid the inevitable pitfalls.  Read more

When a client passes away, one of the most important items on our to-do list is to file certain tax returns.  In this episode of Trust Me!, we will be discussing an overview of things to consider during the period of post-death administration, mainly focusing on filing the federal estate tax return (Form 706).  Read more

In this episode of Trust Me!, Bette Epstein discusses the magic of the trust and estate mediation process to informally resolve disputes, which includes party engagement, active listening, patience and problem solving. Read more

California just passed a directed trust statute! In this episode of Trust Me!, Michael Rosen-Prinz and David Khanjyan will go over the basic structure of a directed trust, along with the specifics of California’s new directed trust statute. Read more