Counsel for Every Stage of Life and Business

Individuals and Families

The core of every estate plan in California is a revocable trust. A revocable trust is usually the most effective mechanism to avoid probate: an expensive, time-consuming process that reveals your personal details to the public record. When properly designed, drafted, and funded, a revocable trust fully mitigates estate and gift taxes, income taxes, and property taxes.

We design individualized plans for parents, married couples, single people, and US citizens with non-citizen spouses.

• Estate Planning for ParentsProtecting minor children, nominating guardians, and preparing for emergencies.
• Estate Planning for Married CouplesPlans that reflect your exact wishes for the distribution of assets.
• Estate Planning for Single PeoplePlanning for incapacity and naming the people you trust.
• Non-Citizen Spouses (QDOT)Deferring federal estate tax with a Qualified Domestic Trust.

Entrepreneurs and Investors

Financial lives grow more complicated with every successful year. Multiple entities, investments across jurisdictions, changing residency, and future estate taxes can create expensive risks when planning happens too late.

Business exit planning does not begin when you decide to sell; it begins with the choice of entity and continues through succession, tax planning, and the coordination of your exit with your estate. We help founders, family-owned businesses, and investors build tax-efficient, transferable structures and align them with their personal estate plans.

• Choice of Entity, Tax Optimization and Business Exit PlanningEntity structure, tax-efficient reorganizations, and exit strategies built in from the beginning.
• Entrepreneur-Focused Estate PlanningBusiness succession, buy-sell agreements, trust ownership, and asset protection.
• Estate Planning and Planning for IncapacityWhat happens to the business if you are temporarily or permanently unable to run it.
• Probate & Estate AdministrationSettling an estate that holds closely held business interests.

US Citizens and Green Card Holders Living Abroad, and Foreign Investors

Families and individuals are increasingly living, working, investing, and retiring across borders. Each country has its own inheritance laws, tax rules, probate procedures, and requirements for recognizing wills and trusts. Without coordination, an estate can face unnecessary delays, taxes, and family disputes.

For foreign investors and individuals preparing to immigrate, timing is especially important. Decisions made before becoming a U.S. tax resident may significantly affect future tax exposure, reporting responsibilities, and planning options.

• International Estate PlanningCross-border plans, international asset structuring, foreign beneficiaries, coordination with foreign counsel.
• Pre-Immigration Tax PlanningPlanning before U.S. tax residency begins, while the options are still open.
• Probating Assets of Non-US CitizensU.S. resident administrators, apostilled documents, and Form 706-NA filing requirements.
• Non-Citizen Spouses (QDOT)Preserving estate tax deferral for a surviving non-citizen spouse.

Financial Advisors, Attorneys and CPAs

The best plans are built by a team. We work alongside our clients’ attorneys, accountants, wealth advisors, and other trusted professionals to identify issues early and support thoughtful implementation. We strive to ensure that every part of the plan, from trust to entity to tax to succession, works with the rest.

If your client needs a California revocable trust, a cross-border estate plan, pre-immigration tax planning, a business restructuring, or an exit strategy, we are glad to collaborate with you as part of their advisory team.

We regularly work with

• Estate planning and private client attorneys
• Immigration and international tax attorneys
• CPAs and accounting firms
• Wealth managers and private bankers
• Family-office professionals and trust officers
• Professional fiduciaries and corporate trustees
• Business valuation and succession advisors
• Insurance and risk-management professionals
• Charitable and philanthropic planning advisors