Estate Planning &Your Legacy - FAQs

Let’s talk about disinheriting a spouse. Tilden Moschetti, Esq. of the Moschetti Law Group in Calabasas, CA (https://moschettilaw.com) answers some of the frequently asked questions he and his estate planning law firm gets from clients.

A will or trust can contain provisions that disinherit a child or a spouse. Although it may not always be possible to completely disinherit a spouse without that spouse's consent.

The specific rights vary, but typically, and in California, they allow the surviving spouse to claim a certain percentage of the deceased spouse's estate, despite what the will or trust provides or doesn't provide for him or her in California.

Hope this was helpful!

Connect with the Moschetti Law Group online:

Visit the Moschetti Law Group WEBSITE:

https://moschettilaw.com

Like the Moschetti Law Group on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/real.estate.and.estate.planning.lawyers

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About the Moschetti Law Group:

Moschetti Law Group is an estate planning and real estate law firm located in Calabasas, California. We believe in your legacy and are committed to growing it and protecting it for you and your family.

Let’s talk about expressions of your wishes and explanations of your gifts that are contained within a will or a trust. Tilden Moschetti, Esq. of the Moschetti Law Group in Calabasas, CA (https://moschettilaw.com) answers some of the frequently asked questions he and his estate planning law firm gets from clients.

You may decide as you're putting together a will or a trust to explain or indicate how you'd like to see a beneficiary use a gift. Those expressions are not actually binding on the beneficiary if the gift is given just outright.

The way to do it is to leave that gift in a trust and authorize the trustee to distribute it to the beneficiary once the beneficiary meets any sort of requirements.

Hope this was helpful!

Connect with the Moschetti Law Group online:

Visit the Moschetti Law Group WEBSITE:

https://moschettilaw.com

Like the Moschetti Law Group on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/real.estate.and.estate.planning.lawyers

Follow @moschettilaw on TWITTER:

http://twitter.com/moschettilaw

Follow the Moschetti Law Group on INSTAGRAM:

https://www.instagram.com/moschettilaw/

What is a specific gift made in a will or a trust? Tilden Moschetti, Esq. of the Moschetti Law Group in Calabasas, CA (https://moschettilaw.com) answers some of the frequently asked questions he and his estate planning law firm gets from clients.

First, a definition - a bequest is a gift that's made through a will or a trust after someone dies.

Now, a specific bequest is a gift of a particular item that's described in a will or in a trust in a way that's clear that you intend the beneficiary to receive that particular item rather than just cash or the value of that type of thing.  For example, a gift of "my diamond engagement ring" is a specific bequest.

Hope this was helpful!

Connect with the Moschetti Law Group online:

Visit the Moschetti Law Group WEBSITE:

https://moschettilaw.com

Like the Moschetti Law Group on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/real.estate.and.estate.planning.lawyers

Follow @moschettilaw on TWITTER:

http://twitter.com/moschettilaw

Follow the Moschetti Law Group on INSTAGRAM:

https://www.instagram.com/moschettilaw/

About the Moschetti Law Group:

Moschetti Law Group is an estate planning and real estate law firm located in Calabasas, California. We believe in your legacy and are committed to growing it and protecting it for you and your family.

What is a life estate? Tilden Moschetti, Esq. of the Moschetti Law Group in Calabasas, CA (https://moschettilaw.com) answers some of the frequently asked questions he and his estate planning law firm gets from clients. In this FAQ, we talk about life estates.   

Law students, grumble that they will never see one and don't know why they should learn all about such archaic things happening in the fictitious estate of Blackacre. But as an estate planner, we use life estates fairly regularly.   

We use life estates to avoid taxes or to avoid creating situations where just the wrong person or the wrong type of people or a class of people end up with the estate. They allow you to make gift to a person for his or her lifetime. Then, on that person's death provide that the property is to go to other beneficiaries - not the beneficiaries of the person who's getting the life estate. This type of gift is most often made in a trust.  

Hope this was helpful!  

Connect with the Moschetti Law Group online:  

Visit the Moschetti Law Group WEBSITE:  https://moschettilaw.com 

Like the Moschetti Law Group on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/real.estate.and.estate.planning.lawyers 

Follow @moschettilaw on TWITTER:  http://twitter.com/moschettilaw 

Follow the Moschetti Law Group on INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/moschettilaw/ 

About the Moschetti Law Group: 

Moschetti Law Group is an estate planning and real estate law firm located in Calabasas, California. We believe in your legacy and are committed to growing it and protecting it for you and your family.  

We built our firm on a set of principles that puts our clients first by providing outstanding representation, aggressive negotiation, and world-class client service and communication. Schedule a consultation to discuss how the Moschetti Law Group can support you and your goals.

What is the difference between will and trust?

Clients "come to me" from all over the place because they want an estate plan to avoid probate.   

Even though they are typically high net worth professionals or celebrities with the best resources, most don't know why they want to avoid probate. They just don't know what the problems are with it.  

They tell me this makes them feel irrational because they have committed to an estate plan to avoid something they don't even know what it is.  If this sounds like you, you are definitely not alone!   

Probate is a court-supervised process of distributing your estate. 

The problem is three-fold:  

1. It takes a long time. Probate over six months is typical, and over a year is expected.  

2. It is expensive. Fees are set by statute and are high. For example, an estate of $1m results in fees of a minimum of $46k. That is $46k that could have gone to your heirs.  

3. It is public. It opens up your entire portfolio and your family tree to the public eye.  

Here is a story that comes to us all too often. A 25-year-old came to us on behalf of him and his three siblings after his father's death. His dad and mom had divorced a long time before, and the dad had remarried. Ten years before his death, the dad and his new wife had split and never filed for divorce. Now worth $1.5M, the house was still in Joint tenancy, and his estate worth about an additional $2M. Trust? No. Will? No. What happened? This step-mom got the house and $1M of the estate. The four siblings split the remaining $1M. Now $250k is nothing to sneeze at, but it surely wasn't what this young man's father would have wanted.  

The point is, you need a plan, and you need to update that plan. 

Probate is expensive, takes a long time, and is public.   

Our tip is to do an estate plan, or the state of California will do one for you.  If you have any questions or would like to get started, you can give us a call at 888-224.9615 or visit us at https://moschettilaw.com.

What happens with debts in a small estate after someone dies?

Can a person have more than one person designated on a power of attorney?

Tilden Moschetti, Esq. of the Moschetti Law Group in Calabasas, CA (https://moschettilaw.com) answers some of the frequently asked question he and his estate planning law firm gets from clients.

In this FAQ, he answers a sister who's got a brother and another sister and their mother is currently living in the house, but is suffering from dementia. They're going to be moving her to an assisted living facility and they wanted to know if they can sell the house while she's still alive.

As asked, the answer is ‘probably’, but look to the powers that were given in that trust, and make sure that everybody is on the same page and then go from there.

Hope this was helpful!

Connect with the Moschetti Law Group online:

Visit the Moschetti Law Group WEBSITE: 

https://moschettilaw.com

Like the Moschetti Law Group on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/real.estate.and.estate.planning.lawyers

Follow @moschettilaw on TWITTER: 

http://twitter.com/moschettilaw

Follow the Moschetti Law Group on INSTAGRAM: 

https://www.instagram.com/moschettilaw/

About the Moschetti Law Group:

Moschetti Law Group is an estate planning and real estate law firm located in Calabasas, California. We believe in your legacy and are committed to growing it and protecting it for you and your family.

We built our firm on a set of principles that puts our clients first by providing outstanding representation, aggressive negotiation, and world-class client service and communication. Schedule a consultation to discuss how the Moschetti Law Group can support you and your goals.