Dennis Fordham law office | Blog | Lakeport, California

Access to Electronic Records and Communications

Electronic records and electronic communications are electronically kept by banks, brokerages, and other institutions to store important customer account information and communications. A person’s interest in such electronic records is called a “digital asset”. California’s “Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act” (“RUFADA”), in Probate Code sections 870 to 884, provides California’s state level […]

posted on: January 31, 2025

Federal and State Level Estate Taxes.

An estate (death) tax taxes your estate on the transfer of assets you owned at your death. Most people are not presently concerned about the federal estate tax as the threshold for federal estate tax is a decedent’s estate with a net worth of at or above around the application exclusion amount of 14 million […]

posted on: January 10, 2025

Enabling Advisors to control the Administration of a Trust.

Under California’s new Uniform Directed Trust Act, trusted advisors can be granted control of certain aspects of the trust administration as trust directors. Also, settlors now can allow co-trustees to divide (compartmentalize) the trust administration between themselves such that co-trustees are no longer responsible for each other’s administration. Thus, California now allows the trustee’s duties […]

posted on: December 31, 2024

The New Petition to Determine Succession to a Decedent’s Primary Residence.

Under new legislation (AB 2016), for decedents dying after March 31, 2025, the successors in interest to the decedent’s primary residence, if it has an appraised date of death value under $750,000, may use a new special court petition to determine succession to a decedent’s primary residence and so avoid a full-fledged probate administration. Strangely, […]

posted on: December 12, 2024

Medi-Cal Without the Asset Test.

Since January 1, 2024, when the asset test for Medi-Cal was abolished in California (only), many more people now qualify for Medi-Cal. Unless a person receives Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”) or intends to leave California, the need to put assets into an irrevocable Special Needs Trust is not relevant to receiving Med-Cal where eligibility is […]

posted on: November 27, 2024

Selling Assets Inside a Probate Estate.

Administering a decedent’s probate estate typically involves selling real and personal property assets to pay debts, taxes, expenses of administration, and to distribute what money remains to the decedent’s beneficiaries. Whether the personal representative – i.e., the executor named in a will and otherwise an administrator — is required to obtain court supervision (e.g., a […]

posted on: November 15, 2024

Rights of Residents in California Skilled Nursing Facilities

Life as a resident in a skilled nursing facility can be a challenging experience both for the resident and their family. A resident is dependent 24/7 for all their needs on the care provided by the facility and its employees. Such dependency presents difficulties both for the resident and the facility. Nonetheless certain standards of […]

posted on: October 29, 2024

The Need to Review Estate Planning Documents

The need to periodically review and update one’s estate planning can go neglected for years. In the end, it may be too late because the person involved has either become incapacitated or is deceased. The last thing the decedent’s surviving loved one (beneficiary) needs is an unwelcome surprise — an unforeseen gotcha — in the […]

posted on: October 5, 2024

Estate Planning and the Omitted Child

A decedent’s child is his or her heir, along with any surviving spouse/registered domestic partner, and as an heir may – or may not – be entitled to a portion of their deceased parent’s estate. California law does not require a parent to include a child as a beneficiary under the parent’s estate planning. However, […]

posted on: September 19, 2024

Holding Personal Property in Further Trust.

People have special, even valuable, personal property that they wish held in further trust after they die for the benefit of their family. Examples include paintings, books, tools, guns, and vehicles. How are such items legally controlled and managed to achieve the owner’s intended purpose(s) after the owner’s death? Also, who gets to make discretionary […]

posted on: September 5, 2024

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