Trusts and Estates Section

Summary: The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from taxing trusts based solely on the in-state residency of trust beneficiaries. Read more

Summary: Administrator removed for 15-year intentional delay in selling estate property and winding up estate affairs, and for bad faith conduct against heirs. Read more

Join us Friday, June 28, 2019 for the Summer Trusts and Estates Education Conference in Sacramento. It'll be a day full of educational opportunities. You don't want to miss out on speakers such as Jeremy Moffitt, Lydia L. Lockett, Ellen McKissock and many more. We want to see you there! Read more

Join us on June 28, 2019 for the 2019 Summer Trusts and Estates Education Conference in Sacramento. Read more

Summary: A living trust may be considered a “person” for purposes of a partnership, and may associate in a partnership in place of an individual. Read more

Summary: No contest clauses are enforceable against both contestants and respondents in a trust contest, depending on the circumstances; the anti-SLAPP statute applies to no-contest-clause-enforcement petitions, but the litigation privilege may not be used to defeat them. Read more

Summary: Biological Child of a Decedent Who Died Intestate Has No Standing to Pursue a Wrongful Death Action Where Status as Intestate Heir Cannot Be Established. Read more

Summary: Although the insurance company rejected as technically insufficient the trustor’s beneficiary designation forms naming the trustee as the owner of the policy, the trustor had nevertheless properly gifted the policy to the trust and relinquished all rights to change the beneficiaries. Read more

Summary: German birth certificates offered to show relationship to decedent excluded from evidence due to lack of attestation. Read more

Summary: Trial Court Ruling Imposing Limited Conservatorship Upheld On Appeal Where Finding Was Supported by Substantial Evidence Read more