Tinsel town has been abuzz since the murder of well-known and much loved publicist Ronni Chasen last month. She was gunned down as she was driving home down Sunset Boulevard. Investigations into her murder have now turned up a twist that’s very interesting to California estate planning lawyers - the revelation that the powerful and highly successful publicist had left behind an estate worth millions of dollars, and, possibly, no will.

An older will that has been found names several charities that stand to receive tens of thousands of dollars from the estate, as well as Chasen’s children and assorted relatives. According to copies of the will, the value is $6.1 million, and it was drafted in 1994. In it, the publicist left her memorabilia to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with a provision regarding credit. She also left tens of thousands of dollars to some of her favorite charities including the Make a Wish Foundation and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. She then left the rest of her estate to her mother. However, her mother has since died. Because the mother is no longer alive, her niece Melissa Cohen gets a substantial amount from the estate.

However, that's not the end of it. According to supporting documents, Chasen prepared another will, probably in 2006. This last will cannot be located. According to the publicist's brother who has applied to be the special administrator of the estate, the will is likely in a safe deposit box. Beverly Hills police have not yet admitted if the contents of the will are likely to define their investigation going forward.

A study conducted a few years ago found that parents of minor children were even less likely than others to have drafted a will or any other estate papers. This is truly scary when you consider that this is one category of people for who estate planning is not just necessary, but an absolute must.

Part of the estate planning process for parents of minors is deciding on guardianship issues. This can be one of the trickiest issues for parents. If the parents are still married, it can be lead to a tug-of-war between both parents. It's normal to want someone from your side of the family appointed as guardian to your children when you're no longer around.

However, it’s very important to approach guardianship issues with an open mind. Make a list of all the positive attributes that you would like the guardian of your children to have, and look for these qualities. Be prepared to compromise. The kind of guardian you are looking for may not necessarily be someone from your side of the family.

In the case of single parents, the children may be automatically transferred to the surviving parent, no matter what has been specified in the will. However, you must speak with a California estate planning attorney about your options.

It also helps if you lower your expectations for a guardian. Often, estate planning lawyers find that the choice of guardianship is a tricky one, because parents have a picture of a perfect guardian in their minds. What should be important is that the person has the means to raise your child, and will be able to raise your child with the kind of values that you hold dear. Perfect parents don't exist, and neither does the perfect guardian.

 

Questions of division of assets after one partner passes away, can be some of the most important in any live-in relationship.  Under California law, when one partner passes away without leaving a will, the assets can be divided equally among surviving relatives of the deceased partner.  The surviving partner may be left with simply no rights at all.  The duration of the relationship or its depth will not matter at all if you have not bothered to leave behind a will.

You can make sure that your assets will be transferred to your partner after you, by specifically detailing this in a will.  A will simply allows you to identify who you will be leaving the property to after you die.  Property can be left to anybody you choose, in whatever proportion you choose to.

However, in order to execute a will, a court will set into process a probate procedure to oversee the distribution of assets.  This can be an expensive and cumbersome procedure.  In order to avoid the probate procedure, you can also establish a living trust.  A living trust works similarly to a will, but avoids the costs involved in a probate, while still making sure that your assets are transferred to your partner after you die.  A living trust document establishes clearly who you are leaving your assets to.  In addition, a living trust establishes a person who will apportion the assets after you're gone.  Thus, there is no need to go through a court probate process, and your assets can be transferred to your domestic partner in an easier and smoother fashion.

Besides, you can also choose to own your assets in joint tenancy with your partner.  In a joint tenancy, when one of the partners dies, the other partner automatically becomes the owner of the assets. 

You should contact an Orange County estate planning lawyer as soon as possible to make sure your wishes are fulfilled.  At Russakow, Ryan & Johnson, our lawyers work hard to help you and your heirs keep as much of your estate as possible while avoiding conflict and litigation.

Estate planning is not so much an option as much as a necessity, and especially more so if there are children with special needs involved.  The term “special needs” can include children with Down’s Syndrome, autism, and a variety of other mental and developmental conditions.  If you have a child with special needs, you must approach estate planning with urgency, efficiency and strategy. 

Children with special needs qualify for state and federal benefits.  However, to avail of these benefits, it is important that a child have no more than $2,000 in assets at any point in time.  Therefore, it's important for your estate planning attorney see that the special needs child is not a direct beneficiary of any of your inherited assets that have a total value of more than $2,000.  This will include inherited assets from your life insurance policies, IRAs, and 401(k).  You want to make sure that the child is not forced to forgo state or federal benefits because of his inheritance.  Besides, your Los Angeles estate planning lawyer should be able to ensure that the child continues to receive special benefits under Medicaid.

You can do this by placing all of these assets in a Special Needs Trust.  A Special Needs Trusts has dual advantages.  It allows the funds to be managed for the benefit of the child, while making sure that the child, at no point, has more than $2,000 in assets which would disqualify him from federal benefits.  This is a stand-alone trust, and can be funded by a third-party. 

The most important thing in establishing a Special Needs Trust is to determine a trustee.  The trustee needs to be someone you can rely on to spend the trust assets judiciously for the benefit of the child. 

Some people who were in line for an inheritance from a relative, who died in 2010, could be finding their inheritance harder to see.  That's because of the repeal of the estate tax for 2010, which has left many will administrations hanging in balance.

The estate tax lapse should have meant more savings for inheritors, but for many people, it has hardly worked out like that at all.  In some cases, small amounts can be disbursed from the will, but tax attorneys don't recommend that you disburse large bills until the exact estate tax picture becomes clear.  In 2001, the Bush administration implemented a series of estate tax cuts, and increased exemptions.  In 2009, Congressional inaction on the issue meant that the taxes were allowed to expire.  Since then, the status of estate taxes has hung in limbo, creating uncertainty for inheritors.  Many wills that had been created by persons who died this year have not taken into consideration the repeal of the estate tax.  

The possibility of retroactive taxes remains high.  It is possible that the federal government may apply retroactive estate taxes back to the beginning of the year.  In that case, those who have already collected their bequests will have to pay tax.  It is not a likely scenario, considering that this will have some pretty hefty political implications.  Besides, we could be looking at constitutional challenges to such retroactive taxes.

However, the possibility is strong enough for many Los Angeles estate planning attorneys to recommend postponing administration of a will to the end of the year.  By then, the estate tax picture will become clearer, and this make administration of a will easier and smoother.

When it comes to family matters, women are often the head (and sometimes the sole member) of the planning committee. Vacations, dinner parties, school activities and celebrations… many of these wouldn’t happen at all if the women of the family didn’t take the lead. Estate Planning tends to be no different: Many first phone calls, appointments, and attendance at estate planning or elder law seminars are initiated by women. However, studies suggest that this tendency in women to plan ahead may not apply to financial planning.

A recent article from CBS news suggests that although women are actively involved in family and household finances, they are less likely to be involved in long-term financial decisions. According to the article, although many women “know how to spend and get by on a short term basis… they have a time getting a grip on their long term saving and planning.” Of course this is a generalization, and won’t apply to everyone; but considering the importance of the topic, it is definitely a worthwhile subject for discussion.

Here are a few statistics to consider that impact women and their long-term financial decisions:

• Older women (65+) outnumber older men by 22.4 million to 16.5 million. (Administration on Aging)
• Poverty rates are higher among older women than older men by 20.4 to 13.1. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• The median weekly earnings of full-time wage-earning women is $657, or 80 percent of men’s $819. (U.S. Dept. of Labor)
• Not to mention that on average, it is the woman of the family who will end up putting her career on hold for caregiving duties at various times in her life (either to care for young children or aging parents.)

Put all of this together and it means that women need to take control of their finances, not the other way around! Luckily, this may not be as difficult as you think. The CBS news article mentioned above has some suggestions on how to take charge of your finances; but beyond that, planning your estate can be a huge step toward planning for your financial future as well, because any estate planning includes taking stock of of your financial assets—including savings accounts, retirement assets, individually owned assets as well as those owned jointly by a married couple.

We encourage women (and their families) to let their estate planning contribute to their financial future—it’s not just about how your assets will be distributed after your death, but also what steps you’d like to take to preserve those assets during your lifetime.

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