Silicon Valley Estate Planning Journal
News and Articles from the Law Offices of John C. Martin
5 Common Estate Planning Mistakes to Avoid
From time to time, it’s good to review why having a complete, up-to-date estate plan is so important. In addition to confirming our own actions, it can provide us with valuable information to pass along to friends and family who, for whatever reasons, have yet to act....
Defensive Estate Planning Series: Other Areas to Consider
Other Areas to Consider There are many other changing circumstances that should be anticipated with flexible estate plan design. These include qualifying for California Medi-Cal benefits through authorizing the gifting down of incapacitated individual’s estate;...
Defensive Estate Planning Series: Changes in Estate Tax Law
Estate tax laws will change significantly over the next few years. As of this writing, the estate tax exemption amount (the amount that can be transferred at death without tax) will be $1 Million in 2013 and later years. At any time, Congress could change this...
Defensive Estate Planning Series: Changing Marital Status
What happens when a trust is set up during the lifetime of a surviving spouse, and that spouse later remarries? Spousal trusts are often established in order to minimize estate tax or to provide a stream of income to the spouse during lifetime. Upon death of the...
Defensive Estate Planning Series: Special Needs
In the world of estate planning, the best offense to changes in the law and life circumstances is usually a good defense. Rather than running to court or the drafting attorney each time a crisis occurs, estate plans can be drafted “defensively,” such that several...
Trust Funding Series: Assets that Don’t Require Funding
Certain assets do not have to be funded to the revocable trust. For instance, retirement accounts and life insurance policies will remain outside the trust. Instead, these accounts transfer to named beneficiaries upon death. In these cases, greater attention must be...
Trust Funding Series: What are “Unfunded” Trusts?
An unfunded trust means that the trust does not hold title to assets at death. A trust may be partially or completely unfunded. Assets may be funded to a trust in several ways, including legal assignment and the re-titling of accounts to the name of the trust. For...
Beneficiary Designation Series: Role of Will or Trust
If you’ve read this far in our series, you may be thinking, “wait a minute, couldn’t I just rely on my will or trust to deal with my retirement plans?” This would be a grave error. Remember that the beneficiary designation of a retirement plan will determine the...
Beneficiary Designation Series: The Wrong Beneficiaries
Sometimes, naming a beneficiary can result in disaster. For instance, naming an “estate” as beneficiary may result in probate proceedings in California when the plan and other probate assets exceed $150,000 in value. In...
Beneficiary Designation Series: Trusts
Individuals should use extreme caution when naming a trust as beneficiary of a retirement plan. Most revocable living trusts—whether provided by attorneys or do-it-yourself kits—do not include adequate provisions...
John C. Martin
(650) 329-9500
Recent Posts
- Talking to Your Family About Your Estate Plan
- John Martin Speaks on Estate Planning : Protecting Your Legacy
- John Martin Speaks on Advanced Estate Planning
- Estate Planning with Real Estate after Proposition 19
- John Martin recently quoted in Charles Wallace’s article on Digital Wills and the importance of managing passwords
- KGO Radio Interview with John Martin
- Through Menlo Park Kiwanis, John Martin Helps Award $50,000 in College Scholarships
- Federal Tax Reform is Coming. Are you Ready?
- California Asset Protection Laws are Changing. Is Your Current Trust Adequate?
- Tune in on 7/19 at 7pm for a Live Radio Discussion on the Prevention of Financial Elder Abuse