Asset Protection: Safeguarding Your Investments Against the Threat of Lawsuits

Diversification of investments is typically thought of as the best strategy to grow wealth and protect an individual’s holdings from the vagaries of the economy. Real estate in particular has…

International Estate Planning

In an interconnected world where professional and personal opportunities more and more often result in people having family, property, and interests all over the globe, the question of how to…

The Corporate Transparency Act and Estate Planning

The beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements mandated by the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which go into effect on January 1, 2024, have clear implications for business entities that were…

The Corporate Transparency Act and Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting

In 2021, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) passed with bipartisan support. As part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, the CTA is intended to help bring US law in…

California Homeowners’ Exemption vs. Homestead Exemption

Most homeowners aren’t experts on all the details of the laws affecting their homeownership, and it doesn’t help when two rather different legal benefits have confusingly similar names. In California,…

Trust and FDIC Insurance: How Much is Covered?

With the sudden closures of some major regional and industry-specific banks, many people are worried about their FDIC coverages for accounts held in trust. This is a good opportunity to…

What is a Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT)?

This is Part 2 in a three-part series about Estate Planning for Non-Citizens. In Part 1, I discussed general issues involving non-citizen planning. In Part 3, I discuss the various…

AB150: What you need to know to save on taxes

On July 16, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 150 into law. This bill enables certain California taxpayers to write off more than the $10,000 limit placed on state…

Tax Changes Coming? What you can do…

A lot of people have been talking about what President Biden’s tax plan will look like and whether there’s anything we can do now. In April of this year, Biden…

Choosing Your Permanent Guardians… And Avoiding The Wrong Ones!

What to Think About When Naming Permanent Guardians Most estate planning attorneys will encourage you to set up estate plans for many reasons: to protect against probate; to plan for…