- Guardianship
- Real Estate TransactionsFor example, if buyer purchases Green Acre from seller, buyer will transfer ownership of Green Acre to seller by giving seller a deed to Green Acre. In the context of a modern real estate transaction, the escrow/title officer at closing will have the seller sit down and sign the deed transferring ownership of the home to buyer.
- Eminent DomainWhenever a home is transferred whether by inheritance, probate sale, trustee sale, short sale, eminent domain, etc. a deed is involved.
- Estate PlanningIn a previous post I discussed the compensation rate for a trustee in which the trust did not specify how much the trustee would be compensated. In such a situation, the trustee would be entitled to "reasonable compensation under the circumstances." Prob C § 15681. As mentioned, a rule of thumb used by some estate planning attorneys is to annually compensate the trustee 1% based off of the trust's total value. For example, if the trust estate was worth $500,000, the trustee would be entitled to $5,000 as compensation.
- Trusts"[i]f a trust has two or more beneficiaries, the trustee has a duty to deal impartially with them and shall act impartially in investing and managing the trust property, taking into account any differing interests of the beneficiaries." This is commonly called the duty of impartiality. In the vast majority of trust administration cases, there will be multiple beneficiaries that the trustee has to treat impartiality. That is, the trustee cannot exhibit bias towards one beneficiary over another. However, this can be challenging because a successor trustee is typically a family member that often has a positive or negative relationship with the beneficiaries.
- Probate
- Tax LawSince the end of the year is very much upon us, this brings changes to tax law. In particular, the Estate Tax is set to be changed, albeit ever so slightly, in 2012.