Documents Everyone Should Have in their Fire Proof Safe

What causes the biggest headache when it’s time to settle an estate and distribute assets? The answer is when important documents can’t be found. Trying to locate important papers, organize them, and sometimes complete them creates an extreme burden, the process to slow down and a unnecessary frustration. A difficult time is made much worse by the lack of pre-planning. It’s great when steps were taken to keep the matter outside of a courtroom, but it’s even better when everything is in one place to be handled efficiently. A bank safe deposit box or a fire proof safe are excellent […]

By |Deeds, Estate Planning, Living Trusts, Wills|
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It’s Just A Piece of Paper, or is it more?

Have you ever heard someone (maybe even you) say, “It doesn’t matter, it’s just a piece of paper”. We have helped to clean up some nasty messes that could have been avoided with “just that piece of paper”.
Recently an elderly Los Angeles woman was stunned to find out that the house she had been living in for 27 years didn’t really belong to her. She found out just before the auction. She told an L.A. Times reporter that she lived with the man she specifically referred to as her “husband” who owned the house before he died. But they were […]

By |Death & Property, Deeds, Estate Planning, Probate|
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Transferring Real Estate – A Simple Deed or a Costly Mistake?

There are so many reasons to get professional tax advice before adding someone to a deed or transferring real property outright. There can be serious and costly consequences. Yet so many people just won’t take the time to seek the information or get the advice. When someone comes in to our office to have a deed prepared, we’d like to be sure that they know what they’re doing. Because we prepare legal documents under our client’s specific direction and are not tax professionals, we can’t counsel on these matters, except to encourage them to get advice on legal and financial […]

By |Deeds, Estate Planning, Property Transfers, Wills|
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