Bay Area Property Ownership

Article

Bay Area Property Ownership: Joint Tenancy, Tenants in Common or Community Property? In California, when you own real property with another person, you can hold it in one of 3 different ways: Joint Tenancy; Tenants in Common, and; Community Property Joint Tenancy In a...

California’s Proposed Estate Tax Changes

Article

CALIFORNIA’S PROPOSED ESTATE TAX FAILS IN SENATE WILL NOT, FOR NOW, MAKE IT TO THE 2020 BALLOT California State Senator Scott Weiner recently introduced Senate Bill 378, which would impose gift, estate, and generation-skipping taxes on all transfers after December 31...

Steeply Declining Rolling GRATs: Perhaps the Best GRAT ever

Article

Some Basic GRAT Concepts Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs), described in Code Sec. 2702(b), are successful in transmitting property out of a property owner’s estate at no estate tax cost and no or minimal gift tax cost to the extent the assets contributed to the...

A Will or a Trust – That is the Question

Article, Estate Planning, wealth preservation

A WILL OR A TRUST – THAT IS THE QUESTION When a couple with young children approach estate planning for the rst time, the rst hurdle in the planning process is to determine what type of estate plan to use: one that is based on a Will or one that is based on a...

Vlog – Truths and Myths About Estate Planning – McDowall Cotter 5/20/2020 12:00pm

Join us on Wednesday, May 20th from 12:00pm – 12:30pm for McDowall Cotter’s vlog on Truths and Myths About Estate Planning.  To access this vlog, please click here:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82897238494 If you have questions about how or why you need to...