Dear Clients, Colleagues and Friends,  Phil has had a great year – financially at least. A successful real estate developer, his two longest-term and riskiest bets sold way over asking price, giving him a significant cash windfall. In a normal year, Phil would be spending the holidays at his beach house in Hawaii, celebrating his success with his lovely wife, their three grown children, and their seven precocious, hilarious, adorable […]

Divorce Proofing Your Premarital Assets Dear Clients, Colleagues and Friends, Whoever said “money can’t buy happiness” has never paid for a divorce. Paul Tommins should know… he’s paid for two of them. His divorces – expensive as they were – came with silver linings.  Free of the daily push and pull of domestic life, Paul was able to focus on building his fulfillment business, diving headfirst into creating a corporation […]

Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT) included in Changes to California Parent-Child Property Tax Exclusions Dear Clients, Colleagues and Friends, Prop 19 Under California’s current property tax system, homeowners who are 55 and older only have a one-time opportunity to retain their existing property tax basis if they sell their existing home to purchase another home of equal or lesser value — either within the same county, or to ten other […]

(Proposition 19 Passes) Dear Clients, Colleagues and Friends, Under California’s current property tax system, homeowners who are 55 and older only have a one-time opportunity to retain their existing property tax basis if they sell their existing home purchase another home of equal or lesser value – either within the same county, or to ten other eligible counties. However, California voters have tentatively approved Proposition 19, which would expand this […]

Dear Clients, Colleagues and Friends, As you may have heard, California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, recently signed into law Assembly Bill 1885 (“AB 1885”), which substantially increases the amount of equity California homeowners can protect in their primary residence effective as of January 1, 2021. Under California’s current homestead exemption, the amount of equity in a primary residence that a homeowner can protect from a judgment creditor ranges from $75,000 for […]

Dear Clients, Colleagues and Friends, Any of you who have children know that as parents, we often want to help our adult children who need a financial boost – and this assistance frequently comes in the form of a loan. Loans are an effective and common way for parents to foster a child’s independence, encourage responsibility and signal their confidence that their child can succeed on his or her own. […]

Dear Clients, Colleagues and Friends, As you know, the Trump tax cuts (2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) created unprecedented opportunities for individuals and families to transfer their legacies in a tax-efficient manner. These cuts allowed individuals to double their estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax exemption amounts from previous levels. While the federal estate and gift tax exemption amount is currently $11.58 million per person (indexed for inflation), the […]

GIFTS TO MINORS: Protecting Them From Your Child’s Future Creditors and Predators Dear Clients, Colleagues, and Friends, Uniform Gifts to Minor Accounts are very popular for parents and other relatives to establish financial accounts for minor children as a means of making a “controllable” gift to a minor. This is accomplished by establishing a custodial account at a financial institution for the benefit of the minor child which is usually managed by […]

Dear Clients, Colleagues, and Friends, In 1995, Bill and Sandy met with me to discuss what to do with a real estate investment that had appreciated significantly. The investment represented a meaningful portion of their net worth and they felt the time was right to sell it, but they didn’t need a large infusion of cash, and didn’t want to pay the tax (in 1995, the capital gain rate was […]