Trusts and Estates Section

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In this episode of Trust Me!, our guest Bill Sias, who works for the Office of County Counsel in Los Angeles, will discuss the basics of LPS Proceedings.  Read more

With the Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law Specialization Exam right around the corner on October 21, 2025, the Trusts and Estates Section Executive Committee of the California Lawyers Association (TEXCOM) wants to make sure you have everything you need to prepare! Read more

A demurrer may be filed any time at or before the initial hearing in a probate case. Read more

Licensed Professional Fiduciaries play a key role in the trusts and estates ecosystem in California. In this episode, we discuss the role that professional trustees play in trust administration, and the skills and experience they bring to bear in order to secure the legacies and wishes of the clients they serve.   Read more

Leslie Knoles (Decedent) and Ruth Catello (Catello) co-owned real property originally as joint tenants with rights of survivorship.  A few weeks before her death, Decedent recorded a quitclaim deed she had granted to herself that, if valid, severed the joint tenancy and created a tenancy in common with no right Read more

Summary:  Order appointing Public Guardian as LPS conservator and authorizing Public Guardian to place conservatee in a psychiatric, nursing, or other state-licensed facility improperly delegated to the Public Guardian the duty to designate the least restrictive alternative placement for the conservatee. Read more

New laws were enacted in 2024 that affect California trust and estate practitioners. Join our two speakers, attorneys Jadene M. W. Tamura and Mara M. Mahana, on this episode as they describe the highlights of the new laws and how they affect trusts and estates practice, estate and trust litigation, incapacity proceedings, and more. Read more

An elder abuse restraining order (EARO) may issue without adjudication of the elder’s capacity, and an attorney’s fee agreement constitutes a property right the deprivation of which constitutes financial elder abuse. Read more

Petition for construction and reformation of a trust amendment was not a contest where the petition sought to reform the trust to correct an alleged mistake as to trustor’s intent.   Read more

A trustee of a testamentary trust has standing to file a petition in an estate proceeding since the trustee is a devisee under the will. Read more