Meissner Joseph Ruggles, Inc. Legal Blog

I occasionally discuss with my clients the issue of someone “fighting” their trust. This usually is where there is an estranged child or other family member, and the clients are concerned about cost and delay of litigation after their death.  The clients will ask...

I’ll be honest, the best way to discuss these issues with my own mother was over a bottle of champagne.  But, we got through it and had some laughs and some tears. As our parents age, we're often faced with difficult conversations about their future health care needs,...

If you are serving as a trustee, executor, administrator, guardian or conservator and rental property is part of the estate, you may be subject to additional reporting requirements starting in 2025. Assembly Bill 2747 adds Civil Code Section 1954.07 which requires...

The short answer to the question of whether your estate planning binder needs to be in your “go bag” is - probably it does, especially if it contains the original signed documents.  We are in fire season here in California and the east coast is being pelted by...

Have you ever received or given a “loan” from or to a family member with the expectation that it would be paid back with interest and a promissory note was signed for the funds?  Not likely.  A new Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case – Estate of Bolles (9th Cir. 2024)...

There are two statements I hear over and over again as a Trusts and Estates attorney. First: I don’t have any money so I don’t need an estate plan.  Second: My estate plan is super easy, everything goes to my spouse and then to my kids.  Hopefully, this blog will be...

Due to the prevalence of DNA matching on genealogy websites, it will become more and more common to discover formerly unknown relatives.  I had a recent matter where a child contacted someone that showed up as a half-sibling on a popular genealogy website.  After some...

The issue of in-laws comes up quite often when I advise clients about estate planning.  Most of the time it is a discussion that a client does not want their son-in-law or daughter-in-law to receive anything from their trust. And sometimes it is a client wanting to...

I recently met with a client who needed to establish a conservatorship for their child.  The child was diagnosed with a mental illness before turning 18 years old.  I told my client that I needed to do a little research because I was not sure if we had to file for a...

It’s my birthday month, obviously September is one of the best months, for that reason, but it also, growing up on the east coast, was the start of a new school year and the change of the seasons.  The weather got colder, leaves started to fall and sweaters were...