Conflict Avoidance

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Tracy PottsTracy M. Potts has nearly three decades of experience in California with estate planning, administration and litigation.  A Texas native, she earned her law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law.  Her leadership experience includes chairing the Executive Committee of the State Bar of California, Trusts and Estates Section, as well as the Sacramento County Bar Association, Probate and Estate Planning Section.  She is a certified specialist in estate planning, trust, and probate by the State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization.  She also is a fellow of the The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

Tracy’s law firm, Legacy Law Group, operates from the Natomas area of Sacramento.  I sat down with Tracy at her office in February 2020 to discuss estate planning and dispute avoidance.

Jeffrey MakoffOn November 20, 2019, California attorney Jeffrey T. Makoff presented to the Sacramento Estate Planning Council on the topic: “Welcome to the Post-Marriage World: How to Plan for a Generation That Says ‘I Don’t.’”

Jeff started with evidence that marriage rates have declined sharply from the Silent Generation (those born from the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s) to the Millennials (those born from about 1981 to 1996).

California’s elaborate Family Code establishes property rights between married persons, resting on the concept of “community property.”  But what happens when unmarried folks start or run businesses together, or make other financial deals, during an intimate relationship?  Jeff explored the complexities associated with the legal relationship between partners who are neither married nor registered domestic partners.

Can a California trustee require a beneficiary to sign a release in order to get a distribution from a trust?  A question like this appeared recently on the AVVO “Free Q&A” page and makes for a perfect blog topic.

Trustees understandably want to wrap up trust administration without having to worry about being sued by beneficiaries.  When a beneficiary appears to be litigious, the trustee may want to dangle a preliminary or final asset distribution as a carrot to get the beneficiary to sign a release.  Yet, since the trustee is a fiduciary, California law does not give a trustee unfettered discretion to insist on releases.  An effort to prevent trust litigation could end up sparking such litigation.

Trust and estate litigation attorneys are “trusted advisors.”  Like estate planning attorneys and other professionals who help clients with wealth management, we are fixers who assist clients with navigating conflict relating to a trust or estate.  While we spar in the probate departments of the Superior Court of California, at the end of the day our main function is to advise clients so they can choose a resolution that fits their needs and is achievable in the situation at hand.

The role of litigator as trusted advisor came to mind last week as I sat at McGeorge School of Law listening to Todd Fithian’s upbeat and insightful presentation on the subject of “Amplifying Your Brand.”  Todd spoke at the Sacramento Estate Planning Council’s annual Estate Planning Forum event which offers outstanding continuing education and serves as a collaboration incubator for professionals in various fields.

Bette Epstein, Esq.

Many California trust and estate disputes are resolved by mediation instead of a final adjudication in the Superior Court.  Mediation can offer a custom-crafted resolution to a case that avoids the stress, expense and unpredictability of a trial.  When parties choose to mediate, there is often a deal to be found even…

Stepmothers are frequent characters in California trust and estate litigation, as they are in fairy tales and Disney movies.  With about half of all marriages ending in divorce, there are many stepmother/stepchild relationships.  Mostly they work out fine, but some go south.

After blogging on sibling conflicts as a driver of trust and estate disputes, I offer thoughts today about the litigation I see between stepmothers and stepchildren.  In Family Feud parlance, my personal survey says that step-parent relationships are a close second to sibling relationships as the setting of trust and estate litigation.  I’ll focus on stepmothers here, though of course stepfathers also often clash with their stepchildren.

I’m a sibling lawyer.  My career started early, as a middle child, and now continues as a Sacramento-based trust and estate litigation attorney.  Most of my clients are grappling with sisters or brothers over the care and finances of aging or deceased parents.  In Family Feud parlance, my “survey says” that sibling versus sibling is the top category of matchups in California trust and estate disputes.

Will this happen in your family?  What leads siblings to litigate?  In many of my cases, cracks in family relationships were evident long before anyone filed papers at the courthouse.  But I’ve had many clients tell me they were always close to their siblings and “never saw it coming.”

One of the most dramatic areas of California trust and estate litigation is no contest clauses.  No contest clauses bring a made-for-tv excitement to the practice of trust and estate law because of the risk of disinheritance.  Yet such clauses are widely misunderstood, even among attorneys.

John Goralka Headshot
John Goralka, estate planning attorney at Goralka Law Firm

I asked estate planning attorney John Goralka, of the Goralka Law Firm in Sacramento, to share his thoughts on working with clients to avoid disputes over their estate plans.

John has been a lawyer since 1988.  The State Bar of California has certified him as a specialist in both Taxation Law and Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, a dual certification held by relatively few California attorneys.

Tell me about your personal and professional background.

Family is important to me.  I grew up on a ranch in the Livermore Valley in Alameda County with five brothers and three sisters.  I feel truly blessed to have grown up in a large family.  We remain close and enjoy spending major holidays and other gatherings throughout the year together.  Each of my siblings has an advanced degree, which is a testament to my parents.  Our family get-togethers are never quiet or boring.

I founded the Goralka Law Firm in 1996.  The firm helps successful families, business owners and real estate owners achieve their enlightened dreams by minimizing taxes, better protecting assets, resolving transitions, and even cleaning up messes from time to time.

Woman in backseatActing as a trustee can be a thankless and time consuming job, especially when the reward at the end is nothing more than second-guessing from trust beneficiaries.  In our Sacramento-based trust and estate practice, we represent trustees who have strained relationships with beneficiaries, whether their siblings, step-relatives, or otherwise.  One useful tool to help trustees manage those relationships is the Notice of Proposed Action.

The notice procedure allows a trustee to obtain immunity from breach of trust claims without (1) obtaining an order from a California probate court, or (2) waiting three years for the statute of limitations on breach of trust claims to run.