Estate Planning for California Real Estate: Avoid Probate, Prop 19 Traps, and Co-Ownership Disasters
Real estate is the biggest area of confusion for my clients. Deeds
Great estate planning does not happen in isolation.
A client’s estate plan intersects with taxes, investments, insurance, real estate, divorce, business ownership, intellectual property, incapacity, and inheritance.
That is why interdisciplinary study is critical to our work at De Fonte Law PC. We ask our clients to introduce us to their advisors, we never send clients to play telephone with questions we have, and we keep advisors in the loop – letting them know what the client needs from them to create, fund and maintain successful plan.
We work with the professionals our clients already know and trust, and introduce clients to additional advisors when they need them.
We only refer to professionals who have an up-to-date estate plan and appropriate umbrella insurance. We walk the walk.
We can’t refer clients to professionals who only talk the talk.
This Professional Resource Center brings together our guides, checklists, articles, videos, and professional education.
Learn where California estate planning intersects with your work.
Use them. Share them. And when you see an issue that belongs on someone else’s desk, bring that professional into the conversation.
A great estate plan needs other lawyers and professionals to ensure an estate plan will work properly and that a client is fully protected and prepared for what like (and death!) will throw at them.
We expect our clients’ advisors to become our spies: help make sure the trust gets funded, beneficiary designations make sense, assets are titled correctly, business and intellectual property interests are assigned when appropriate, and the client comes back to us when something changes.
A financial advisor may spot an outdated beneficiary designation. A CPA may learn about an inheritance. A divorce lawyer may get us involved before the petition is filed. A real estate professional may raise vesting before the client attends their first open house. An IP lawyer may know about copyrights the estate planning lawyer has never seen.
You know things about our mutual client that we do not know. We know things that you do not know. The client is better protected when we talk to each other.
We help clients identify their real estate, financial accounts, retirement assets, insurance, business interests, intellectual property, and other significant assets.
Our clients receive detailed instructions for coordinating their assets with their estate plan. That work often requires help from financial advisors, CPAs, real estate professionals, insurance professionals, and other counsel.
We identify the professionals already serving our clients and help fill gaps when additional expertise is needed. With our clients’ consent, we send discrete documents to each of our clients advisors, letting them know exactly what they need to do to support the clients’ estate plan.
We ask the same of you: help us implement the plan, tell us when something changes, and send the client back when the estate plan may no longer match their life.
California real estate is complicated, and most clients have not worked with a lawyer to purchase property. Estate planning sits at the intersection of title, Proposition 19, capital gains, probate, co-ownership, divorce, and inheritance.
TIC agreement, Condo CC&Rs, and all co-ownership agreement should include provisions requiring probate avoidant estate planning.
Real estate is the biggest area of confusion for my clients. Deeds
Newly Married? 10 Estate Planning Questions Every California Couple Should Answer You
Estate planning matters before a divorce petition is filed, during the divorce, at settlement, and after the divorce is final. In California, the laws of intestacy can lead newlyweds and clients with prenups and postnups to unintentionally disinherit each other.
Our resources address trusts, beneficiary designations, incapacity documents, real estate, insurance, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, and rebuilding an estate plan after divorce.
You just slip out the back, Jack Make a new plan, Stan
This is your published professional chapter and gives the section authority beyond
Most divorce professionals believe estate planning is something to do “after the
7 Estate Planning Risks for Family Law Attorneys We love working
Financial and tax advisors are often the first to know that something important has changed.
A new inheritance. A business sale. New real estate. A beneficiary designation that does not make sense. A trust that was never funded. A major change in wealth.
Our resources include:
An estate plan should coordinate with the client’s business plan.
Who can act if the owner becomes incapacitated? What happens to the ownership interest at death? Does the trust coordinate with the operating agreement, shareholder agreement, buy-sell agreement, insurance, and succession plan?
Our resources address:
Copyrights and rights of publicity do not disappear when their creator dies.
For artists, performers, authors, musicians, and other creatives, estate planning should address who will own and manage intellectual property, negotiate licenses, collect royalties, and make decisions during incapacity and after death.
The family trustee may not be the right person to manage copyrights or licensing. And sometimes a separate structure for intellectual property can provide better administration and greater privacy for the family.
Insurance is an important part of protecting the people, property, and businesses our clients have worked hard to build.
We want our clients’ insurance professionals at the table. Estate planning can uncover gaps in life insurance, umbrella coverage, disability and long-term care insurance, and business coverage. For business owners, we may also need to consider key person insurance, buy-sell funding, and what happens if an owner becomes incapacitated or dies.
Videos and Blog Articles Coming Soon
Your client says:
“I’m going to put my daughter on the deed.”
“We’re buying a house together, but we’re not married.”
“I’m getting divorced. I’ll deal with my trust later.”
“I inherited my mother’s house.”
“My beneficiary designation doesn’t match my trust.”
“We sold the company.”
“My business partner died.”
“My manager handles all my intellectual property.”
“The trust is signed, but nobody assigned the copyrights.”
Spot the issue. Bring in the right professional.
Estate planning changes because our clients’ lives change, the law changes, and the work of the professionals around them changes too.
Our professional newsletter and YouTube channel focus on the places where estate planning intersects with real estate, divorce, tax, financial planning, business ownership, insurance, copyright, and the right of publicity.
We share practical resources, recent developments, professional programs, and the issues we are seeing in real client work.
Interdisciplinary study makes all of us better advisors.
