At our firm, we meet with a lot of grandmothers and grandfathers.  In my experience, grandmothers are generally more likely to want to provide something directly to their grandchildren in an estate plan.  Beyond wisdom and faith, grandmothers can enhance the lives of their grandchildren by including them as beneficiaries. 

The grandmother has two channels to bless her grandchildren.  First, she prepares her own children to be great parents!  Second, she can encourage, instruct, teach and occasionally spoil her grandchildren. Grandmothers often want to leave something directly to their grandchildren in their estate plan.  This usually takes the form of a sum of money or a family heirloom.   Gifts or bequests at death must be handled appropriately.  Indiscriminately naming a young grandchild as a beneficiary of a bank account or a life insurance policy without further instruction or control can end up costing the parents a lot of money and legal headache.

For our office, grandchildren and potential grandchildren are always included in planning.  A big part of our work with clients is discussing contingent distributions – meaning that if your first-level beneficiaries happen to die before you, where do you want their intended share to go?  For a very large majority of our clients, the ‘where’ is the children of their children – in other words, the grandchildren.

Control or management of the gift for a grandchild who is still immature is important.  It is also important to make sure there will be enough liquidity to make cash gifts without negatively impacting their other estate plan goals.  For example, one can hold shares for children for life to both protect the child from bad decisions or influences and to ensure that some wealth will eventually pass to the grandchildren.

There has been a lot of ink spilled over the dreaded Generation Skipping Transfer Tax (GSTT), which still exists at the Federal level as a means of making sure the government could get estate taxes from you AND your children when your children died!  However, due to large minimums before those taxes are imposed under current law ($15M per person in 2026), we don’t often need to work to avoid the GSTT.  Most clients are free to leave gifts of larger assets or amounts to grandchildren without fear as long as the rules for controlling and managing the distributions are clear.

An inheritance for grandchildren from their grandmothers can be a poignant gift of great benefit to both the grandchild and the children as well.  For instance, a grandmother can provide for a grandchild’s college education to relieve the children from that obligation.  Gifts like these can be an incredible generational blessing. 

Our practice helps many grandmothers (and grandfathers) set up these gifts appropriately every year. 

What does everyone, including every Miss America contestant ever, want the most? Peace! Or world peace, to be exact. We long for peace in our politics, communities, friendships, and perhaps most of all with our families — especially around the holidays. For Christians, Christmas is a time when we celebrate the miraculous step God took to make peace between Himself and His rebellious creation.

World Peace

In the news this fall has been the ongoing quest for peace in the Middle East. We were excited to celebrate hostages being released and the cessation of fighting and bombing. We hope that tensions will abate and that an agreement is reached and maintained long-term amidst hostile feelings that span thousands of years. To that end, agreements in these types of situations are often solemnized by a legal paper called a treaty.

Might the participants in the Middle East conflict break their treaty? Yes, they might. Details like who is in charge of territory and how each party benefits from the agreement are clearly spelled out. The consequences of breaking the agreement are also made clear for everyone to see.

Family Peace

A good estate plan is a legal piece of paper — a solemn declaration — that can bring peace in the midst of many family conflicts. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Can contentious family members create conflict even when a good estate plan is in place? Yes. Can a good estate plan that clearly outlines what people are to receive, who is to be in charge of decisions, and what consequences come from challenging the plan greatly reduce the chance of conflict? Absolutely!

A good estate plan, like a good treaty, brings peace… peace of mind to you and peace in reality to the family that you leave behind. Your peace comes from:

Knowing that you’ve saved your beneficiaries from the burden and great expense of a formal probate.

Knowing you have empowered the best people to make decisions on your behalf when you cannot make them for yourself.

Knowing your desires and intentions will have been made clear to your beneficiaries, with a back-up plan in place to support those intentions.

Your family’s peace will come from knowing your desires and intentions clearly. They will know who you want to step up and take charge, and they will know that you planned well so they wouldn’t have to make hard decisions under difficult circumstances.

While Law Offices of Mark E. Lewis & Associates cannot bring about world peace, we have been skillfully drafting documents that support peace in the family for nearly 30 years. We would love to help you create the best gift this holiday season: peace for your family and peace of mind for you.

What about thinking ‘outside the box’?  When you create a custom estate plan with a living trust ‘box’ at its center, you can accomplish goals important and specific to you, even if those goals are a little creative.  Goals that do not fit within common broad categories cannot be achieved using boilerplate forms or a website, no matter how sophisticated.  Below are a few examples of ‘outside the box’ thinking that my firm has been able to design into our clients’ custom estate plans.

Many people like to use their estate to fund the education of a beneficiary.  Decisions about who and when can be left in the hands of the successor Trustee, but some clients want to be more specific.  We have clients who have set aside funds to specifically pay for grandchildren’s education, even when the rest of the trust assets go directly to their children.  Sometimes the definition of “education” is limited to tuition and books only, and sometimes it is broadly construed to include room, board, and educational trips.  Some clients have wanted trade and technical school included, while others stated a specific education requirement such as an ‘accredited four-year college or university.’

We frequently have requests to structure distributions over time.  Someone may be hesitant to have a young adult, for instance, inherit an entire estate all at once with no restriction.  Those clients have set aside a sum to distribute ‘income only’ for a period or distributions in equal chunks over 5 or 10 years.  Sometimes, different beneficiaries need to be treated differently, even children within the same family, for their own good.  One beneficiary might have outright distribution, and another would get periodic distributions.  This can be a sensitive situation, so an experienced attorney will help a client think through these issues wisely.

One client wants to make sure both their children take time to enjoy the ‘dream’ retirement home the client recently constructed, so the children are not allowed to sell the house until the youngest turns fifty years old.

More often than ever before, we set up funds for pets.  One couple left a very considerable amount of money specifically to Golden Retriever rescue. 

All these sorts of instructions require thoughtful drafting, because the ‘contingent’ distributions (e.g., where the funds go after the education is finished, or after a pet has passed on) must be considered.  If these contingencies were not worked through and written into the trust properly, those are the situations where family can end up in a court fight.

We want to meet the individual and family needs of each of our clients.  To reach that goal, no two boxes are the same!  Each document in a comprehensive estate plan drafted by my office is customized to give the proper weight and protection to the estate you have worked hard to build for those you love.  We look forward to helping you create the right box for your family today.

Becoming educated is one of the most forward-thinking activities one can engage in to prepare for the future. Completing that education usually involves a graduation ceremony and a celebration. Why? Because finishing high school or college is a major milestone in life—it’s one that says, “you are now an adult!” with everything that implies.

You’ve Launched Into the World: Now What?

Entering adulthood is both exciting and frightening. It’s often the first time that a person begins to think seriously about their future and the trajectory they would like to pursue in in life. Everyone around you will begin to ask what’s next. 

Spouse?

Children?

Continued education?

Career?

Home ownership?

Investments?

Retirement?

Milestones Are a Time for Reflection

For each question or vision of the future that arises, there is a benefit to planning ahead. Did you know that every step forward in life has a connection to estate planning along the way? A good estate plan is important for each milestone. Not planning ahead can cause a graduate to trip over those milestones, rather than stepping over them confidently or passing by them respectfully and mindfully.

Marriage: The legal institution of marriage is an “estate plan” itself! The newly married couple needs to reflect on both the assets and debts that each spouse brings to the relationship. Then they should decide how to support each other and their family with a good estate plan consisting of wills, powers of attorney, and often a living trust.

Children: Thoughtful parents will immediately recognize the need to empower trusted family members or friends to have authority to raise their children (and manage a child’s inheritance) in case of an emergency. This is accomplished via guardianship nominations and a will or living trust.

Home Ownership: When you are ready to invest in a home, it becomes virtually essential to create a living trust as part of an estate plan. This is how you protect your investment.

Career and Other Investments: Thoughtful estate plans take into consideration how retirement assets from career and investments can be safely and efficiently passed to the surviving spouse and children.

Retirement: Do new graduates even think this far ahead? They should! One’s “golden years” and legacy need to be supported by an estate plan that is carefully crafted as early as possible to support any eventuality that could occur.

The Law Offices of Mark E. Lewis & Associates has been helping clients get over, around, and through both obstacles and milestones for over three decades. It would be our honor to assist you and and new graduate to stop, think, and plan at each of life’s milestones.

Entering adulthood is both exciting and frightening and is often the first time a person begins to think seriously about the trajectory they would like to pursue in life.  Spouse?  Children?  More education?  Career?  Home ownership?  Investments?  Retirement?

Milestones are a time for reflection by thoughtful people.  For each question or vision of the future that arises when one begins to think forward, there is a benefit to planning ahead.  And every step forward in life has a connection to estate planning along the way.  A good estate plan is important for each milestone, and not planning ahead can cause the graduate to trip over those milestones, rather than stepping over them confidently or passing them by respectfully and thoughtfully.

Marriage?  The legal institution of marriage is an ‘estate plan’ itself!  The newly married couple needs to reflect on the assets and the debts both spouses bring to the relationship, and sort out how to support each other and their family with a good estate plan built with wills, powers of attorney, and often a living Trust.

Children?  Thoughtful parents will immediately recognize the need to empower trusted family members or friends to have authority to raise children (and manage a child’s inheritance) in case of an emergency, using guardianship nominations and wills or living Trusts.

Home ownership?  When you are ready to invest in a home, it becomes virtually essential to create a living Trust as part of an estate plan to protect your investment.

Career and other investments?  Thoughtful plans consider how retirement assets from a career and investments can be safely and efficiently passed to surviving spouses and children.

Retirement?  Do graduates even think this far ahead?  The ‘golden years’ and your legacy need to be supported by a carefully crafted estate plan.

My firm, the Law Offices of Mark E. Lewis & Associates, has been helping our clients get over, around and through both obstacles and milestones for over three decades.  It would be our honor to assist you and any graduate to stop and think and plan at each milestone along the way! 

Estate plans can have ‘easter eggs,’ or hidden items that are definitely there but not always intentionally so.  And these kinds of hidden items can actually cause unpleasant surprises.

Two Common Ways your Estate Plan can Turn Rotten

When a client’s life circumstances change but their estate plan is not updated, confusion at best and conflict at worst can ensue.  For example, have grandchildren been born since you created your estate plan?  Do you want them included?  Should they be automatically included if their parents should pass away before you do?  Sometimes language in your trust that hasn’t been updated as new life circumstances develop can cause important beneficiaries to be overlooked and some rotten feelings could result.  In other words, if your plan is not regularly updated, there could be an unpleasant ‘easter egg’ hiding in your older documents.

Another huge source of ‘bad eggs’ are subtle changes in the law that create problems in your existing estate plan.  These changes may come from actual laws changed by the State Legislature, or they can come from case law rulings in higher courts.  They often have unintended consequences.  We have a saying in law school, “hard cases make bad law. 

For example, a recent law enacted in the last two years requires a costly formal accounting each year in the event a trust creator is incapacitated.  Why is this a big deal?  These accountings are very expensive and can be complicated.  Estate plans written by our firm seek to waive these accountings as they are often unnecessary.  Since almost no one knows this was recently made a requirement, some estate plans may not contain this important waiver language.

Our firm keeps up with both legislative and court law developments regularly.  We also check in with our clients every 5 years or so, to make sure they haven’t had any new life circumstances that would necessitate updates to their estate plans.

Come see my trained attorneys and staff.  We’ll help you find the ‘bad eggs’ and write in good surprise treasures for your family this Easter season!

Previously, we have explored how estate planning intersects with marriage, divorce, and remarriage. The short answer is … it’s complicated!

This year, I want to address the romance before the marriage. Should your sweetheart factor into your planning and be not only your Valentine, but also your beneficiary? Let’s look at what the law says, how you can respond, and finally, what we (as estate planning attorneys) would consider wise.

What Does the Law Say?

The law says virtually nothing about unmarried couples.* For most people, your boyfriend or girlfriend has NO power to make financial or health care decisions for you. If you were in an accident and unable to make decisions for yourself, your beloved would be pushed aside for “next of kin” to step in and make decisions. Even if you are in a long-term relationship or live together, your partner has no right to inherit anything from you. This includes property that you currently use together.

(*Note this does not apply to a Registered Domestic Partner in California, which is included in the definition of “marriage” for the purpose of this article.)

How Can You Respond?

An easy solution with regard to assets is to own “jointly” with your partner. Bank accounts are a great example. If I have an account and my girlfriend’s name is also on the account, the law presumes I mean her to receive the account balance when I die. She also can access the account at any time while we are both living, regardless of whether or not I’m incapacitated. A step farther is to name someone as the beneficiary of an account, which can go beyond bank accounts and include life insurance and retirement accounts. However, due to tax issues, we don’t generally recommend that non-married couples own real estate together.

While this helps, it does not address the issue of a medical situation that comes up unexpectedly. There is an obscure legal doctrine known from a case called Marvin v. Marvin (involving the actor Lee Marvin and his longtime girlfriend). It involves mutual pledges of ongoing support and usually involves couples who have cohabitated for a long time without getting married. It’s rare, strange, and may be a visible example of the old law school saying, “hard cases make bad law.” However, there is an alternative to forging a difficult and complicated path like this one.

What Do Wise Clients Do?

Instead of relying on sloppy “planning,” you can prepare documents (like a Trust and financial Power of Attorney) that give your sweetheart the authority to act for your benefit and make them a beneficiary of all or a part of your assets. A good estate plan crafted by knowledgeable professionals is essential for taking care of your nonmarried partner.

Our clients who choose not to marry will often create individual estate plans. This stops other family members from legally excluding their partner. Couples can make each other the only beneficiary of their entire estate, or as noted above, certain portions. Specific assets can be handled properly with a well-drafted estate plan. A Trust can give a life estate to your sweetheart, so they don’t have to leave the house they were sharing with you. Plans can be updated as relationships change.

Need some help? Sweet! Law Offices of Mark E. Lewis & Associates can craft a plan to meet your needs. Contact us today.

Have you ever experienced the outcome of a bad idea? Or wished that you “knew then what you know now?” Anyone who has lived long enough can probably answer in the affirmative to both questions. Sometimes, the only way we learn is the hard way: by making mistakes ourselves and suffering consequences that serve as a painful reminder. When it comes to your estate (which is my area of law), the BAD IDEA to avoid is ending up in probate court. So, even though I have made this point many times before, I will reiterate again that many or even most Californians need a good estate plan that includes a probate-avoidance, revocable living trust.

Because Law Offices of Mark E. Lewis & Associates office handles the administration of estates, in addition to creating and updating estate plans, we help clients navigate the “cautionary tale” of landing in the probate court regularly. Almost every time we have to interact with the probate court, it has been a forceful reminder of what a GOOD IDEA an estate plan would have been.

The Probate Court Nightmare

Having to endure the California probate process is so painful that it borders on nightmare. Recently, courts all over Southern California have attempted to streamline their processes by creating rules that force attorneys to use specific electronic reporting and filing systems. While this might seem more efficient, the electronic “system” doesn’t always recognize the documents, or the over-worked court clerks don’t enter the documents correctly. This means that a process that is already very long can become substantially delayed (sometimes months) or might have to be completely redone from the start.

Time and Money

In the hope of helping you, reader, to avoid this bad idea, I’m offering assurance that you DO NOT want to have your family or loved ones endure the probate process! Keep in mind that the delays described above are in addition to the typical time of one to two years a probate usually takes (during which time the estate assets are frozen). During my 30 years of practice, the fastest probate that I ever participated in practice took nine months.

As if the frustrations and length of process involved with probate weren’t enough, the cost to beneficiaries is another painful consequence to avoid. The cost is a percentage of the estate established by the state, and it is expensive. For example, probating a small, two-bedroom, one-bath house with a value of $700,000 would cost the inheriting family members over $36,000!

Good Idea for Today

Probates can occur because no estate plan was created or because the estate was not planned well. A will is not enough to avoid probate, and a boilerplate estate plan may not be flexible or customized enough to avoid problems. So NOW you know what you need to know for THEN. See an experienced attorney and prepare a quality estate plan for your family.

Here’s a good idea: reach out to Law Offices of Mark E. Lewis & Associates. We have been planning estates for more than three decades. Our attorneys and staff will make sure your well-planned estate keeps your family away from the probate court.

Best Laid Plans

There are two broad categories of fights that occur when someone dies. The first is discerning the deceased’s intentions. What wealth did they want to leave to whom? This is where good planning with wills and trusts can really be beneficial in quelling a fight before it begins. “No Contest” clauses — which we use liberally and regularly — can help stop fights over the language of the will or trust itself, including who gets what and who is to be in charge.

Unfortunately, No Contest clauses cannot stop a fight over how the person charged with distributing the assets behaves,which is the second areawherepost-death disputes commonly happen. Sometimes, these fights are necessary and important if the trustee left in charge begins to steal wealth or make self-centered decisions. As a matter of policy, we want the beneficiaries who have cause to complain to be able to remove or legally force that person to “fly right” and follow the terms of the will or trust.

Preparation Avoids a Fight

On the flip side, some beneficiaries will try to engage in “lawfare” to manipulate or intimidate the trustee. The motivations are usually financial, but control, bullying, and ego can also play a role in these unfortunate family dramas.

The planning process at my firm looks both to immediate and future situations. We assist many clients in closing a deceased loved one’s estate, so we are familiar with the best practices during planning that are more likely to avoid conflict and make the post-death process go smoothly. Through our consultation process, we identify potential areas of conflict and blend defenses with our clients wishes and desires. Then, when the documents are needed, we have the background and history of our client families to guide them through efficiently through closing the estate.

Your Best Weapon

Additionally, we go beyond mere clauses. Planning and selecting the proper decision-makers and arming those people with flexible language that covers a variety of situations is the best means of calming the stormy seas of grief. Grief and loss can bring out the worst in even the best people. A well-drafted estate plan, based on a thorough interview with the originating client, can avoid pitfalls and thus become a salve of comfort for the entire family.

Despite our best efforts, sometimes ending up in court becomes unavoidable. The best defense is a clear and well-crafted estate plan that makes court so potentially costly, and succeeding in contesting so very difficult, that only the foolhardy will make the attempt.

As long as there are people, even when it’s FAMILY, conflicts can arise. However, being well-prepared can help avoid these conflicts before they have a chance to damage relationships. Our office would be honored to help you plan for a peaceful future for your loved ones.

They’ve Come of Age: Now What?

Once your child turns 18, they are legally free from parent control over their lives, including important issues like medical care and finances. What that means is that your newly minted graduate — just like you — needs to have a plan in place to empower trusted decision-makers to step in should an unforeseen event happen. Certainly, this is not something many young adults have on their radar. Fewer still will have the wealth at age 18 that requires the establishment of a deeper estate plan (i.e., a Trust). However, each and every young adult should have a plan that includes (at minimum) a financial Durable Power of Attorney and an Advance Directive for Health Care. This planning not only would handle a “just in case” situation, but it would also protect any assets that might need management while the student is away at college or traveling. A departing scholar can give Mom, Dad, or other trusted person immediate access to things like bank accounts through these documents.

When your new graduate embarks on a career, they may begin to have workplace benefits like life insurance and a 401K plan. But what if they were to become incapacitated? A properly drafted Power of Attorney is necessary to operate someone else’s retirement plan for their benefit (and avoid the expensive court process necessary to keep it from languishing).

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

At Law Offices of Mark E. Lewis & Associates, we are fortunate to hear from many of our clients when their children leave the nest. Because our clients understand the necessity of solid estate planning, we are frequently engaged to prepare Powers of Attorney, Health Care Directives, and even Wills for their recent graduates. As parting gifts go, an estate plan isn’t nearly as exciting as a new car, but it can be just as practical.

When meeting with these young people, we are able to teach them a little bit more about “real” life and relationships in the conversation. I enjoy the privilege of introducing future-minded concepts and benefits to a client’s children who may have been the main object of the family’s planning process just a few short years before. Recently, I had the momentous honor of preparing an estate plan for a third generation member of a long-standing client’s family.

Whether your young adult stays near or ventures far in the coming months and years, it’s wise for them to create legal documents that protect assets, both close to home and newly acquired –in case of incapacity– and that allow them to work directly with administrators at colleges and other institutions,. Additionally, do encourage your young adult to consider who in their life could be trusted to step in and help during a life crisis. It won’t hurt you to have some parental peace-of-mind, either!