Sacramento Estate Planning Council

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Bank trust departments, also referred to as corporate trustees, provide professional management to the administration of California trusts.  People may choose to name a bank to act as successor trustee when they can no longer manage their own assets, either because they don’t have family members they can count on to handle assets or because they don’t want to burden family members with the role. Sometimes family members or a court may appoint a bank to take the place of an acting trustee as a means to resolve disharmony amongst the parties.

Alysia Corell joins us here to share her experiences as a trust officer.  Alysia grew up in the Mt. Shasta area of Northern California and traveled south to attend San Diego State University where she majored in communications.  She began to work in a bank trust department in 2003 and became a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor in 2008.  She is a past president and current member of the Sacramento Estate Planning Council and a member of the South Placer Estate Planning Council.  In 2018 Alysia joined the trust department of Exchange Bank.

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.

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.

Mental capacity issues are commonplace in California trust and probate litigation.  Jonathan Canick, Ph.D., who spoke last year at the Sacramento Estate Planning Council on the subject of “Aging, Cognition and Capacity,” graciously offered to share his thoughts with us here.

Dr. Canick has practiced neuropsychology for over 30 years. He is a member of the departments of psychiatry and neuroscience at California Pacific Medical Center, an associate clinical professor, University of California, San Francisco, and a member of the Board of Directors of Legal Assistance for Seniors, an Oakland-based nonprofit. He was a co-author of a research paper entitled “Reversal of Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease” that was published in the June 2016 issue of the journal Aging.

Pro BonoIn a Prince-themed blog last spring, we used the singer’s untimely death to make the point that “you don’t have to be rich” to need an estate plan.  While the litigation surrounding Prince’s $100-300 million estate grinds on, as well covered in the Star Tribune, here in Sacramento there’s a new pro bono Estate Planning Clinic to help low income residents prepare estate plans.