We offer estate planning services designed to preserve your wealth and ensure an orderly transition of your estate to your loved ones. While obtaining a Will is a good idea, it is usually advisable to take the extra step and establish a Family Trust, as this avoids costly probate fees and permits the successor trustee to have immediate access and control over all assets of the estate. In addition to the Family Trust, we also establish Charitable Trusts, Life Insurance Trusts, Remainder Trusts, Asset Protection Trusts, and utilize other estate planning tools to carry out your wishes.
Our firm recently assisted the California Assembly in drafting Senate Bill 387. Among other things, this new law allows a veterinarian to put their practice into a Family Trust even when the veterinarian's spouse is not a veterinarian. This, in turn, permits an orderly transition of the veterinary practice upon the untimely death of the veterinarian and allows the spouse up to a year in which to sell the practice. Even if you already have a Family Trust, the Trust should be amended to include the benefits of Senate Bill 387 so that your heirs can conduct the sale of your veterinary practice in an orderly fashion. We have seen countless situations where the doctor died unexpectedly and by the time the probate court gave approval for the sale of the practice, the practice had lost most or all of its goodwill value, and was sold at salvage value for the equipment. Now is the time to protect your family by establishing a Family Trust or amending one to take advantage of these important protections just enacted into law.