What Is
Estate Planning? Put in its most simple terms, estate planning involves putting your
affairs in order so as to maximize the benefits that your
assets can provide to you during your life and to those you desire to
benefit from it after your death.
Estate planning is a process that has three objectives in mind: » To insure that your assets will pass at your demise to those
persons you designate in a manner which will give them the
maximum benefits; » To reduce or eliminate the tax burden on your estate; » To provide for the passing of your assets at your demise to your
chosen beneficiaries without the necessity of probate
and without its costs, time delays, and inconveniences.
What Does A Proper Estate
Plan Include? A proper estate plan to provide for the needs of your family may
include: » An adequate Will or Trust; » A written agreement concerning the status of your assets; » A directive to your physician or a Durable Power of Attorney; » Final instructions of your preference.
When Should An
Estate Plan Be Reviewed? If you already have an estate plan, it should not be considered
permanent. Conditions, as well as your desires, may change.
Estate plans should be reviewed at least every two-three years but,
additionally, any important change in your life demands
immediate review. These changes might include: » Birth, death, marriage, divorce or disability of you or a
beneficiary; » Large increase or decrease in the net worth of you or a
beneficiary; » Substantial change in the type of your assets; » Purchase or sale of a business; » Change of residence to another
state; » Change in tax law.
Trusts-What Are They? A trust document is an agreement between three people dealing with
assets. » The
Trustor is the creator of the arrangement who appoints a » Trustee to hold the legal title to the subject assets for the
benefit of » the
Beneficiary.
Although there are certain legal limitations, it is possible for the
Trustor and Beneficiary to be the same person and is even
possible for the trustor to serve as his own Trustee. In some
situations, Trustors may wish a bank or other entity to serve as
the Trustee.
What Benefits Does A Trust
Offer?
Trusts offer a number of important benefits: » Probate
Avoidance; » Capital
Gain Tax Savings; » Retention of privacy of family assets and finances; » Avoidance of
conservatorship; » Creditor protection for your beneficiaries; » Control of distribution and management of assets during life and
after death; » Death tax avoidance or reduction.
Who Can Benefit From A
Trust?
In larger estates where tax savings are an important consideration,
the use of trusts may play a paramount role. Even
relatively small estates can usually benefit from the probate avoidance
offered by a Trust. Oftentimes, individuals do not realize just how large their estate
is. This is especially true since all assets owned or in
which one has an interest is included, such as:
»
Life insurance; » Joint tenancy or community property holdings; » Business interests.
A Trust can be designed to meet the needs of a large or small
estate. Its cost is a fraction of what the avoided probate
expense or estate tax would have been.
What Happens If You Do Not
Have A Will Or A Trust?
If you do not have a Will or a Trust and have not used other probate-avoiding
techniques, upon your death your assets will
pass according to the laws of the state which has jurisdiction over
your assets. The "state plan" may not provide for those
you desire to obtain your assets, and if it does, often presents
several of the following problems:
» Higher estate taxes; » Additional inconvenience and expense (probate expenses run from 2
1/2% to 5% and more of the value of the assets-
see Probate Cost Chart ); » Necessity of guardianship for assets inherited by minor children
with rules probably not designed to accomplish your
goals.
If a Person Has a Living
Trust, Are There Still Loose Ends to Tie Up
When He or She Dies and Does it Still Take Time to Settle the Estate? Despite what you may have heard elsewhere, the truth is there are
always at least some loose ends to tie up when a person
dies. No matter how simple the estate, there are always some
loose ends
to tie up. This is what we call "Estate Administration." If the
person's assets are worth more than
$1,500,000 at death there are substantial loose ends to tie up
including the filing of a Federal Estate Tax Return and the
possible payment of an estate (death) tax. Estates of this size
generally take at least 10-12 months to settle (assuming a
friendly family situation and no significant complications). If the
person's assets are worth less than $1,500,000 at death,
there are usually substantially less loose ends and settlement often
times takes 4-8 weeks (but see FAQ # 9 below.)
Does it
Really Take less Time to Settle an Estate in Which a Living Trust
Was Used Rather than Just a Will? As stated in the previous question, estates of more than $1,500,000
with a Living Trust typically take 10-12 months to
settle. If just a Will were used, Probate is very often required to
settle the estate and this court process will typically take
15-20 months. In smaller estates with a Living Trust, 4-8 weeks used to
be typical. Unfortunately (or fortunately),
depending upon how you look at it, the California legislature recently
passed a law requiring all trust beneficiaries and
heirs of a decedent to be sent a specific notice and giving them four
months (but in certain cases 6 months) to contest the
trust. So now, it still generally takes 4-8 weeks to complete the
substantive efforts to settle the estate, but the estate must
stay open until the contest period has run its course. If Probate is
required 10-14 months is fairly standard. All of this process is
referred to as "Estate Administration."
Does it Really Cost less to Settle an Estate in Which a Living Trust
Was
Used Rather than Just a Will? If just a Will was used, Probate Court proceedings are often
necessary to settle the estate. Probate is a very formal and
organized process. The more formal and organized a process, the more
complicated it typically becomes and the expense
usually increases accordingly. Probate fees in California are governed
by statute. Statutory fees for the Attorney and the
Executor are computed by formula (see
Probate Fee Chart) but for estates up to $1 million can be
approximated as 2% of
the gross value of the Probate estate plus $3000 for each of them. In
Probate estates where estate tax returns must be filed
or where A-B Trusts were used, court approved extraordinary fees in
addition to the statutory fees are common. If a Living Trust is used, Probate is
usually avoided and attorney fees are typically less than they would be in
Probate. Estimates of the national average for settling estates larger than $1
million outside the Probate Court system run in the 1.5% range of the estate
value. All of this
process is referred to as "Estate Administration."
What Other Probate
Avoiding Techniques Are There in Addition to
Living Trusts? The following methods are often used to avoid probate (sometimes
this is useful, and sometimes it is counterproductive):
joint tenancy title, community property title, bank account trusts, pay
on death accounts, life insurance proceeds, retirement
proceeds (IRA'S, TSA'S, 401K's, etc.), retirement plans, gifts made
during life, revocable grant deeds. Each technique has
its own ramifications for tax and other issues. As with everything
else, there can be no "one right way" in all situations.
Should I Do It Myself
Without An Attorney or:
What's The Difference
Between A Valid Trust and An Effective One? A valid Trust is one which the law will recognize. It is not
particularly difficult to write a valid trust. You can probably
obtain one at the local bookstore as they generally have many paperback
books dealing with the subject of Trusts. Some of
these usually have tear out fill-in-the-blank forms. The cost of these
books is often in the range of $19.95. Although I've
never really checked, there's a good probability that at least some of
these forms would be valid, once completed and
signed. Of course, there is also computer software available for
relatively low prices that promises to help you complete
your own trust and I've often seen ads in magazines for the
"mail-order" trust at approximately $24.95. The latter is often
touted as valid in all 50 states! (I don't know about you, but I only
live in one state and the legislature here is constantly
changing it's laws. I'd guess the legislatures in the other 49 states
are doing pretty much the same thing. So whatever
document is "valid" today may need to be changed tomorrow!) And then,
in this geographic area, we have a mobile
paralegal who will actually come to your home to do a Living Trust for
you for approximately $250. Or the attorney who
advertises "Why pay more?" and will do a Living Trust for approximately
$395. Again, I've really never checked, but let's
give all of them the benefit of the doubt and say they are all valid
trusts.
On the other hand, an "effective" trust is far different. It is not
only valid but it also has the goal of being designed to get
done in your particular situation what needs to be done in as efficient
and effective manner as possible.
(See my article "Father Wants Flexible and Low Cost Living Trust"
and my article "Buy Advice, Not Forms." )
In other words, although the ultimate output you obtain from your
estate planning attorney is often what appears to be just
paperwork and forms, what you are really getting is his advice and
recommendations to use this particular technique or that
alternative. His value may not be as obvious as that of the attorney
who fights for you in the court room, but it is just as
real. For example, he may recommend that instead of leaving your eldest
child his inheritance outright it might be better to
give him his inheritance in the form of a lifetime trust for creditor
protection or a myriad of other reasons. Or he might
suggest that you transfer ownership (not just the beneficiary
designation of your life insurance) to your children now rather
than waiting until you die because such a transfer could save as much
as 48% of the insurance death proceeds from death
tax. (That's right; life insurance is generally free from income tax,
but not death tax.) And all of these recommendations
will be made based not only on his education but, also, on his past
experience of dealing with other families and
individuals and seeing thousands of other situations. So the more
experienced and competent your attorney is, generally the
better his questions to you will be, the better his follow up questions
to your initial answers will be, and the better his
recommendations to you will be. (See "How
Can One Find A Competent Estate Planning Attorney When Moving To A
New State/City?" and
"Questions To Ask To Determine If An Estate Planning Attorney Is Really
Competent." No book or computer software can do this and I doubt
that the mobile paralegal or the rock bottom priced attorney can either.
My Child Is Married and
I Don't Trust His Spouse. How Can He Keep
His Inheritance Out of Her Grasp Just In Case They Get a Divorce? Under California law, inheritances are the separate property of your
child and not community property. ( Please note that if
your child does not live in California, often times the law of the
state where your child resides would control this issue.) So his spouse
has no rights in or to the inheritance. Of course, what your child does
after he receives the inheritance can
change what was once his separate property into community property. The
most typical example is where the child who
receives the inheritance places the assets into a joint bank account.
Once he does that, it may not be his separate property
anymore. So the best approach is to make sure he doesn't commingle
these newly received assets with the joint assets of he
and his spouse. Certain types of Living Trusts can help greatly in
preserving these inherited assets as separate property.
Does an A-B
Living Trust Have Any Disadvantages? A-B trusts are a type of Living Trust set up by someone who is
married (in California, typically one trust for both spouses)
and is designed to reduce or eliminate the Federal Estate (Death) Tax
that would normally be incurred upon the death of the
second spouse to die. Keep in mind that everything has disadvantages,
including A-B Trusts. Initial cost, complexity, and
maintenance costs after the first spouse dies are some of these. So
whether it is worthwhile or not depends upon your
circumstances. A good estate planning attorney (typically not the low
cost bidder) can help you decide. (See How
Can
One Find A Competent Estate Planning Attorney and Questions
To Ask To Determine If An Estate Planning Attorney Is
Really Competent in this FAQ.)
If I Have More than
the Federal Estate Tax Equivalent
($675,000 in
2000), is an A-B Trust Utopia ? I am embarrassed to say that there have been many people who have
spoken before groups of consumers (and some of these
speakers were attorneys) who left the false impression that if you have
an A-B Trust all of your problems were solved and
you had reached "tax Utopia." Unfortunately, there is no tax Utopia.
For example, if a husband and wife have a net worth
for Federal Estate Tax purposes of $2 million and we assume that 1) it
is 1999, 2) the first spouse dies in 2000, 3) the
second spouse dies seven years later 4) their estate appreciates at
five percent per year and the first spouse to die leaves
everything outright to the other (i.e. they do not have an A-B Trust),
then upon the second death there would be a death tax
of approx. $921,000. On the other hand, if they have an A-B Trust the
death tax would be approx. $437,500. This is an
improvement of approximately $485,000. That's good. But I know of no
one who would say that a tax bill of almost
$500,000 is utopia. (See my page on Federal
Estate Tax for more information on the exemption equivalent.) So
this couple
would be well advised to investigate advanced estate planning
techniques to further reduce the tax. A good estate planning
attorney (typically not the low cost bidder) should be able to help
them with this. (See How
Can One Find A Competent
Estate Planning Attorney and Questions
To Ask To Determine If An Estate Planning Attorney Is Really Competent in
this
FAQ.)
How Can One
Find A Competent Estate Planning Attorney
When
Moving To A New State/City? In those states, such as California, where qualified organizations
have certified attorneys as specialists in the estate
planning field (See explanation of the California
Certification program) , that organization can be contacted. In
other states
or where no certified specialist attorney is available in the locale in
question, one can contact one of the larger commercial
banks. These banks generally have Trust Departments. (The old savings
and loans, most of which are now banks, do not
usually offer this type of service.) The local branches can usually
provide the Trust Department phone number (although
sometimes the teller may be unaware of this division of the bank). Ask
the phone operator at the Trust Department to
connect you with one of their Trust Officers. Ask the Trust Officer for
a referral to a local, competent estate planning
attorney. These officers have constant contact with attorneys in the
local community and should know who is competent. Do
keep in mind that there are two types of Trust Officers. A marketing
trust officer and an administrative trust officer. Either
can probably give you the necessary information but the marketing
officer will probably have more attorney contacts.
In my mind this method for finding a competent attorney is superior
to lawyer referral services (LRS). With any LRS you
never know what qualifications have been required of its attorneys and
you typically are referred to whoever is next on the
list (whether super qualified or only marginally competent).
Questions To Ask To Determine If An Estate Planning Attorney Is
Really Competent Inquire about the attorney's credentials: Does he or she have any
specialized education? Keep in mind that all California
attorneys must take 25 hours of continuing education every three years
to maintain their license. So ask what the titles of the
courses were to determine if the courses were relevant to estate
planning, trust, and probate law.
Does the attorney teach courses in the estate planning, trust, and
probate law field? Teaching is a great method to keep up to
date.
Will the client actually be interviewed by and consult with the
attorney who attracted attention in the first place, or will an
associate attorney whom you do not know and/or have not had an
opportunity to investigate handle the matter? Is the
attorney who will service the client fresh out of law school with
limited experience? ASK FOR THE NAME OF THE
ATTORNEY WHOM YOU WILL ACTUALLY SEE AND THE YEAR IN WHICH HE OR SHE
GRADUATED
FROM LAW SCHOOL. Many people feel that a person must have been
out of law school a minimum of 5 years before
the legal academic knowledge has been matured by sufficient practical
experience. Some people feel even longer is
necessary.
Will the attorney discuss all viable options with the client based
on that client's individual objectives and circumstances or
does the attorney offer just one solution for virtually all
circumstances? A "one pill for all ills" approach is not generally
appropriate.
Many people think these are great questions but they would simply be
too embarrassed to ask them. If you can't see yourself
asking these questions, you don't have to. Because the State Bar of
California already has through its board certification
specialty program. (See explanation of the
California Certification program) . So if you'd be too embarrassed
to ask this
series of questions, just ask one: Ask the attorney if they are a board
certified specialist in the field of Estate Planning,
Trust, and Probate Law.
Does It Matter If the Attorney Has His Main
Office In Another City?
-- Estate Planning (see below for a discussion of this issue from the aspect of Estate
Administration)
If you are of the opinion that once you sign a Will or Living Trust,
it will not be necessary to make changes for the next 50
years, it probably doesn't matter where the attorney's main office is
located. On the other hand, if you agree that change is
constant and that it's important to have your estate planning documents
reviewed periodically then it may matter greatly.
Many attorneys give seminars to bring in new business. Some
attorneys take this to the extreme and go on the "seminar
circuit." They might have their main office in Los Angeles and give
seminars all over the state. With an 800 telephone
number, or even a local phone number, the attorney can give the
impression that he has a commitment to each area in which
he gives seminars.
But with the magic of call forwarding and other devices, the
attorney may really have no long term commitment to any area
beyond the immediate reach of his main office. When the attorney
realizes that he is not making enough money from some of
these sites, he simply stops visiting them. This leaves any clients who
he picked up in that area in the unenviable position
of either traveling a long distance to the attorney's main office or
establishing a new relationship with a local attorney.
Any time a client has to establish a new relationship, it is going
to cost additional money. Therefore, it is important to make
sure that if the local office is not the attorney's main office, the
attorney has a long term commitment to the local area. Of
course, there can never be any guarantees. Attorneys die, retire, and
move just like everyone else. But you want to place
the odds that the attorney will still be accessible to you in your
favor. Some of the questions I think should be asked are 1)
how long has the attorney had an office in the area in question
(there's nothing like a long-term track record), 2) is the local
office staffed five days a week or something less (just what is the
attorney's monetary commitment to the site), when the
local number is called, at what office is it actually answered (is this
just a "mail drop location" that's only active when an
appointment is scheduled).
Does It Matter If the Attorney Has His Main
Office In Another City?
-- Estate Administration
(see above for a discussion of this issue from the aspect of Estate Planning)
Estate administration involves the handling of the legal details of
a person's estate (his assets), usually when that person
has died or becomes incapacitated (for simplicity we'll call this
person the decedent). If you are the appointed manager
(trustee, executor, power of attorney holder, etc.) for a decedent who
lives in one city while you live elsewhere, that can
create a problem. Do you retain an attorney in your area (local area)
or do you retain an attorney in the area where the
decedent lived/lives (remote area)? There are advantages and
disadvantages in either case.
If we're talking about a situation in which the decedent lived
and/or owned assets in a state different from where the
manager resides, there are legal considerations. The law and procedures
of each state are different. Real estate is
typically governed by the laws and procedures of the state in which the
real estate is located (which could be a different
state from the one in which the decedent lived). Other assets may
be governed by the law of the state in which the decedent
lived or maybe even by the law of the state in which the manager lives.
So the first question, then, is whether the attorney
you are considering is licensed in the relevant state. (If you were
wondering, I'm only licensed in California. So if you
call me, my first question is going to be "Where's the California
"connection?" )
If you use an attorney in your area, that attorney probably won't
have contacts in the remote area. These contacts might
involve real estate brokers or escrow companies. Or it might be as
mundane as knowing who to call at the tax
assessor's/collector's office. And the deceased person may have had an
attorney in the remote area who is very familiar
with the decedent's documents and desires (a real plus in allowing
things to progress quicker) or may even know (and work
well) with the decedent's income tax advisor. (You'll probably involve this
tax advisor to some extent since he has some detailed
information on the decedent's affairs.)
If you use an attorney in the remote area, then, depending upon the
attorney, you might have to travel constantly to work with
the attorney and use regular mail. (See our solution coming up below.)
Traveling long distances can be tiring and eat up an
enormous amount of time. Regular mail (snail mail) can be cumbersome
and slow. Further, most people do not have
"always on" fax capability, so this method creates various
communication problems.
Recognizing the difficulty, we have developed a process to take the
pain out of this situation. After much experimentation,
we have combined various methodologies into a smooth running process.
We use attachments to email to transport our
documents and correspondence. By combining the use of scheduled
telephone consultations along with email attachments,
we can discuss issues of concern and/or document provisions every bit
as effectively as if the client were in the office. Video meetings by Skype are
also available. Further, we
now have the capability to send Estate Tax Returns and Probate Court
documents in this manner. Of course, anything that
has to bear an original signature usually cannot be sent back by email
but that problem is solved by the courier services
(FedEx, UPS, etc). If you're considering retaining an attorney in a
remote city, check and see if that firm is willing to take
this approach, has ever done it before, and how good they are at it.
Although the process sounds easy, it isn't. About half the law firms
use WordPerfect, not Microsoft Word. (The vast
majority of the world, probably including you, uses Word.) If they send
you a document in WordPerfect, something is often
lost in the conversion when you open it in Word. And even if they have
Word, many law firms do not have the capability to
create all of their other documents (estate tax returns, other tax
forms, Probate court documents, etc.) in a format that can be
sent to you via email. And some firms simply don't want to work this
way. So request that they send you a firm brochure
or other information by email attachment as at least a minimal test of
their capability.
How Do Attorneys Charge? There are a number of different methods under which attorneys
charge. (You may wish to take a look at the State Bar of
California's consumer information pamphlet "
How Can I Find and Hire the Right Lawyer? " especially item #12 which
discusses the various different methods of computing fees.) What method
one attorney uses may be radically different than
another, but yet the end result could be surprisingly similar. Of
course, it's important that you understand how your attorney
will be billing and charging in your situation. Follow this link to
take a look at our Policy on Attorneys Fees .
Should You Hire a
Typist a Paralegal or an Attorney? People get confused on this a lot. I've had many a consumer sit down
in my office, in possession of their Living Trust (done
by another law office or maybe even a paralegal) that might have been
several years old and tell me that all they wanted
was a simple change so that grandson Hank would get $40,000 instead of
$20,000. They didn't want me to review it, they
didn't want me to tell them what else might need to be changed, they
didn't want to discuss whether Hank's mother (their
daughter) might get upset about this and how they could deal with it,
and they didn't want to discuss of what their estate
consisted and whether they would actually have enough cash upon their
demise for this gift to actually be feasible. And they
certainly didn't want to pay me more that $75 to get the job done. What
they really wanted, but didn't know it, was a typist,
not an attorney.
So what's the difference? Without getting too technical, you want a
typist if you know exactly what you want to do, exactly
what wording you want to change and what the new wording should be, and
you know exactly what sentence or paragraph
you want to change. Typists typically charge by the page; so if your
change is short, figure $25. Paralegals, on the other
hand, often know where the change should take place in your document
and might even know how to word it effectively.
Figure you might pay $75 to a Paralegal for this job. But if you want
to know not only where the change needs to be made
and how to word it but, also, how that change might affect other
provisions in your documents, whether it is a good idea or
not, alternatives to the general changes you had in mind, the tax
effects of this change, how to protect those changes from
challenge, other changes that might be a good idea to make either
because of this change or changes in the law or your other
circumstances since your Living Trust was originally created, then you
want a lawyer. But don't expect to pay Paralegal
prices for a lawyer. A lawyer would charge based on the complexity of
the change and the complexity of your entire estate;
but if you haven't seen that lawyer for several years or the original
Living Trust was done by someone else, it's doubtful that
it could be competently done for less than about $650.
Oh, and by the way, if you do choose the Paralegal or typist and
things don't work out the way they were supposed to
because of what the person did or advised, don't expect your children
to be able to hold that person responsible for the
losses they've suffered. A court will probably tell you that you should
have hired an attorney to do the job because in most
states it's illegal for anyone other than an attorney to do this type
of work (although in California this law is rarely
enforced).
What About Living Trust
Sales Operations That Use Consultants? This description can include a large number of organizations, some
competent and some not. The focus of this answer is
those operations that offer documents that are basically boilerplate
and do not really deal with your particular
circumstances or problems. The documents are usually very inexpensive.
These businesses are often referred to as "living
trust mills." Some have attorneys somewhere in the background that may
actually look at the document, some don't. Often
the attorney who is on staff is relatively inexperienced or subject to
the directions of others (this would probably not be in
the best interest of the customer/client) rather than being able to
exercise independent judgment as to what might be
appropriate for the customer/client. In many cases, the consultant who
comes to the home is a non-attorney who has very
little training.
Many of these operations have as their real motive, the desire to
sell you investments and annuities. After all, common
sense tells us that they have to make their money somewhere. If they
are offering super low cost documents, then they have
to be making a profit somewhere else in order to support the costs of
their operation.
While the mere fact that they are selling investments and annuities
(at least in my mind) is not that repugnant, the fact that
you often are not told that this is their focus until well into the
process is. The lack of significant experience of the
"consultants" and the relatively little contact or involvement of the
attorney is another huge concern. For more information
on this problem and a form/questionnaire to help you weed out the good
from the bad, see Healthcare and Elder Law
Programs Corporation web site (we have no relationship to them) at http://www.help4srs.org/articles/askfirst.htm. However, as with all links to other web sites, I cannot and do not
guarantee or warranty their information. So you will
have to decide for yourself how appropriate and trustworthy their
information may be.
Should I Hire Mr.
Miller To Do My Trust Although I Live In Another
State? Many
people browsing this web page have inquired as to
whether I could do their Living Trust. Many of these people lived in
states other than California. While I am very gratified
that these people were so impressed with this web page set to consider
the idea, and since this has occurred so many times,
I have decided to add this question to the FAQ page. As stated in
numerous locations on this web page set, I am licensed to
practice in California only. I am not significantly familiar with the
law of any other state. If you own real estate in
California, are a resident here, or are at least a part-time resident
here, or your case has a California connection, then we
can certainly discuss this thought. With one exception discussed below, if you have no connection
to California or your case has no connection to
California, then I should not be your attorney. You are going to be
much better served by an attorney in your home state or,
perhaps, where you own real estate or in the state in which the case is
connected for at least two reasons.
First, I consider the attorney-client relationship to be a very
personal one. This is not the type of thing where I send you a
questionnaire, you fill it out, and I create a trust. I'm sure you can
find a lot of low cost attorneys and non-attorneys on the
Internet who do approach it that way. I do not. Although we might be
able to manage the relationship by telephone, fax,
e-mail and, yes, even snail mail, there will have to be significant
interaction between us. Secondly, the laws of every state
are different. As are the procedures and customs. Assuming it were even
legal, I can't do as good a job for a New Jersey
resident owning land in New Jersey and having no connection to
California as a competent New Jersey attorney can. (One
potential exception to all of this is the situation in which the law of
another state is more advantageous than the law of your
home state. Then, depending on the circumstances, we may be able to help you,
possibly working in conjunction with an attorney in your home state.) As to how to find a good attorney in one of those
states take a look at the FAQ question How
Can One Find A Competent Estate Planning Attorney When Moving To A New
State/City? .
Articles & Columns on Living Trusts, How to
Organize, & the Advantages of Charitable Giving Now Available in
Book Format. Click here for more information.
DISCLAIMER: Merwyn J.
Miller is licensed to practice in the State of California only. Our
office is located in
Encinitas, (San Diego County) California. (Encinitas is adjacent to the
following communities: Cardiff, Carlsbad, Del Mar, La Costa,
Leuadia, Oceanside, Rancho Santa Fe, San Marcos, Solana Beach, and
Vista.) The information provided in this FAQ page is
offered for informational purposes only; it is not
offered as and does not constitute legal advice. Mr. Miller does not
seek to represent you based upon your visit or review
of this Web page set. You should not make legal hiring decisions based
upon brochures, advertising or other promotional
materials. As you read this FAQ, keep in mind that the answer to any
given situation could change drastically with only a
small change in the facts. Therefore, do not rely upon these answers to
solve your or someone else's problem. Instead,
seek competent professional assistance.
