Trusts & Estates

As the population ages and individuals are living longer, assuring a comfortable retirement while preserving the estate for future generations has become a complex balancing act that requires careful planning.
 
Best Best & Krieger LLP’s established team of Trusts & Estates attorneys advises on all aspects of estate planning, wealth management, and trusts and fiduciary dispute resolution.
 
Wealth Management & Estate Planning
 We help clients devise wealth management plans to build and secure their estates, optimize their financial security, establish successful business plans and accomplish their wealth-sharing intentions. Our attorneys offer boutique-level experience and personal attention backed by the resources of a leading, full-service law firm. Working closely with clients, their accountants and financial advisors, we use wills and a wide variety of trusts, investment vehicles and wealth-transfer arrangements to create a tailor-made, comprehensive and strategic wealth management plan to meet our clients’ current and future needs, as well as their overall estate planning goals.

We regularly advise on and assist with:

• Asset protection and distribution
• Business succession planning for closely held, family-owned and other businesses
• Estate planning, probate, will and trust preparation and administration
• Charitable giving, private foundations and trusts
• Elder law, elder care, and physical and financial elder abuse
• Estate, gift, generation-skipping and income tax issues
• Executor and trustee responsibilities
• Guardianships/conservatorships and special needs trusts
• Health care planning, Medi-Cal, Medicaid/Medicare, and advance health care directives
• Investment vehicles and long-term investment strategies
• Life, disability and health insurance coverage
• Marital agreements and community property rights
• Probate, probate avoidance and estate management
• Retirement benefits, pensions and qualified and nonqualified deferred-compensation arrangements
• Revocable and irrevocable trusts
• Powers of attorney
• Probate and trust litigation
• Tax-efficient wealth transfer strategies, tax elections and disclaimers
• Evaluating estate plans in light of life-changing events such as births, deaths, marriages, divorces and incapacities

Dispute Resolution
Recognizing that legal, factual and emotional considerations all come into play in litigation, we strive to prevent trust and estate disputes and seek to resolve unavoidable disagreements through negotiated settlements. In this way, we often avoid resorting to costly, contentious and time-consuming litigation.

Our attorneys have successfully resolved a wide variety of disputes for families, business owners, corporate and private fiduciaries, executives, administrators and beneficiaries, including:

• Breach of fiduciary duty, undue influence, fraud, self-dealing, misappropriation of funds, and conflicts of interest claims
• Petitions for appointment or removal of fiduciaries and fiduciary accountings
• Will and trust contests and disputes over the validity, interpretation and enforceability of provisions and amendments
• Estate-related disputes and estate resolution
• Incapacity/competency claims and appointments of conservators/guardians
• Trustee removal actions
• Asset and estate recovery, valuation and accounting disputes
• Elder abuse allegations
• Community property rights and terms and impact of prenuptial and post-nuptial agreements
• Acquisition and disposition of businesses and professional practices
• Tax controversies
• Revocable and irrevocable trust disputes
• Powers of attorney and disputes regarding health care

Combining legal know-how with compassion and personal attention, BB&K Trusts & Estates attorneys serve clients in and out of court, helping them establish, maintain and pass on their estates in accordance with their wishes.