Providing for your children is one of the primary purposes of estate planning, but what happens to your carefully crafted trust if you had children you did not know about when you created the trust?  Or, what if you have children after you create your trust but never get around to amending the trust to include them?  In the trust and estate world, these children are often referred to as “omitted heirs.” While Probate Code …

For more than a decade, some of Britney Spears’s most devoted fans feared that she was locked up against her will under a court-ordered conservatorship, even going as far to accuse her father, Jamie Spears, of drugging her to take control.  In response, fans launched #FreeBritney, a viral social media campaign, aimed at having Britney’s conservatorship investigated and terminated.  A Change.org petition dedicated to the #FreeBritney movement amassed over 100,000 signatures. #FreeBritney believers may…

Last week the California Supreme Court used a conservatorship case to clarify how appellate courts should review the sufficiency of evidence when the trial court applied the clear and convincing evidence standard. In Conservatorship of O.B. (2020) ___ Cal.5th ___, the Supreme Court held that “when reviewing a finding that a fact has been proved by clear and convincing evidence, the question before the appellate court is whether the record as a whole contains…

Creators of trusts (also known as settlors or trustors) usually think long and hard about how their property should pass when they die.  It’s therefore common for trustors, or their lawyers, to incorporate protective safeguards into their trust instruments to shield trustors from their own whim and indecision, and ensure nobody trifles with their wishes should they become vulnerable to undue influence.  Among these safeguards are revocation procedures, which may require that a revocation document…

Effective January, 1, 2020, the Legislature changed California conservatorship law with respect to the personal residences of conservatees.  Senate Bill 303 attempts to protect conservatees by making it harder to relocate them from and sell their residences.  Proponents argued that existing law made it too easy for conservators to liquidate the homes of conservatees.  The Judicial Council of California unsuccessfully requested a veto, raising competing policy concerns. Since many California conservatorships involve an elder who…