Estate Planning
Tax-aware wills, trusts, and succession plans tailored to blended families, family-owned businesses, and special-needs beneficiaries.
Modern estate planning is less about death taxes — and more about doing what's right for your family.
By increasing the Applicable Exclusion Amount well into the millions, recent tax reform made estate planning much less complicated for most families on the estate-tax side. Yet 'simpler' is not the same as 'simple' — blended families, family businesses, spendthrift children, and special-needs beneficiaries all require thought, not an off-the-internet trust form.
Grabbing an A-B-C trust template online can be an expensive blunder. Estate planning for second marriages, for owners of closely held businesses, and for parents of children with disabilities deserves drafting that anticipates how the plan will actually be administered.
If your current estate plan predates the most recent tax act, and funds the Bypass Trust with the full applicable exclusion amount, you should ask us why your old plan probably should be updated for income tax basis purposes — even if estate tax is no longer a concern.
Cases We Take On
Wills
Simple and complex last wills and testaments.
Simple and complex last wills and testaments. Our attorneys have decades of experience with these matters and pursue every available remedy — from pre-suit negotiation through trial — to protect your rights and maximize your outcome.
Discuss your caseLiving Trusts
Revocable and irrevocable trust structures.
Revocable and irrevocable trust structures. Our attorneys have decades of experience with these matters and pursue every available remedy — from pre-suit negotiation through trial — to protect your rights and maximize your outcome.
Discuss your caseBlended Families
Plans for second marriages and prior children.
Plans for second marriages and prior children. Our attorneys have decades of experience with these matters and pursue every available remedy — from pre-suit negotiation through trial — to protect your rights and maximize your outcome.
Discuss your caseSpecial Needs Trusts
Benefit-preserving trusts for disabled beneficiaries.
Benefit-preserving trusts for disabled beneficiaries. Our attorneys have decades of experience with these matters and pursue every available remedy — from pre-suit negotiation through trial — to protect your rights and maximize your outcome.
Discuss your casePOA & Directives
Financial and healthcare powers of attorney.
Financial and healthcare powers of attorney. Our attorneys have decades of experience with these matters and pursue every available remedy — from pre-suit negotiation through trial — to protect your rights and maximize your outcome.
Discuss your caseTax-Basis Updates
Modernize old A-B trusts for income tax basis.
Modernize old A-B trusts for income tax basis. Our attorneys have decades of experience with these matters and pursue every available remedy — from pre-suit negotiation through trial — to protect your rights and maximize your outcome.
Discuss your caseHow It Works
A clear, four-step path from your first call to the resolution you deserve.
Discovery Meeting
We learn about your family, assets, and goals.
Custom Plan Design
Wills, trusts, and directives tailored to you.
Execution
We oversee proper signing and witnessing.
Lifelong Updates
We update your plan as life and the law change.
An Advocate Who Treats Your Case Like It's Their Own
Decades of focused experience, transparent communication, and a track record built one client at a time.
LLM Tax-Trained Drafting
Both partners hold LLM degrees in taxation — your plan is drafted by lawyers who actually understand the Code.
Strict Confidentiality
Personal and financial information protected with attorney-client privilege at every step.
Plain-Language Counsel
We translate trust and tax concepts into decisions you can confidently make for your family.
Income Tax Basis Aware
Plans built so heirs get the step-up in basis they're entitled to — not a structure that locks in lower basis.
Blended-Family Experienced
Drafting that anticipates remarriages, prior children, and the conflicts that follow.
Special Needs Trusts
SNTs that preserve eligibility for federal and California disability assistance programs.
What a Modern Plan Should Include
A complete estate plan does more than direct who gets what — it anticipates how the plan will actually be used.
Names guardians for minor children, distributes assets, and appoints your executor.
Avoids probate, keeps your affairs private, and speeds distribution to heirs.
Lets a trusted person manage finances if you become incapacitated.
Names a medical decision-maker and documents your treatment preferences.
Preserves government benefits for a child with a 'certified' disability.
Buy-sell terms, voting structures, and divisions for businesses with active and inactive children.
What an Outdated or Off-the-Internet Plan Gets Wrong
Most of the family-turmoil cases we see started with a plan that 'looked fine' on paper.
Without the Right Counsel
- Old A-B trusts that lock in low income-tax basis for heirs
- Blended-family plans that pit a surviving spouse against prior children
- Family businesses with no buy-sell — and no path forward
- SNT mistakes that disqualify the beneficiary from benefits
- Spendthrift children inheriting outright with no controls
With Us in Your Corner
- Basis-aware drafting that captures the step-up at the right death
- Independent fiduciaries and parsing of business interests
- Buy-sell agreements and voting trusts drafted up-front
- SNTs that satisfy federal and California eligibility rules
- Staggered distributions, HEMS standards, and trust protectors
Avoid probate. Protect your heirs.
- Living trusts that bypass probate court.
- Beneficiary designations done right.
- Asset titling to minimize delay and cost.
Plans that grow with your family.
- Reviews to catch life and tax-law changes.
- Trust amendments and restatements.
- Successor trustee training and support.
Common Questions
Straight answers to what clients ask most. Don't see your question? Reach out — we respond within 24 hours.
Trusts avoid probate, keep matters private, and offer faster distribution. Many California families benefit from both — a revocable trust as the primary plan with a pour-over will as backup.
Probably yes. With the much higher Applicable Exclusion Amount, the old A-B-C structure can lock heirs out of a step-up in basis at the surviving spouse's death. We review and modernize these plans regularly.
A trust that holds assets for a beneficiary with a 'certified' disability without disqualifying them from federal or California assistance programs. Mr. Molever drafts SNTs and explains how they fit your overall plan.
Every 3–5 years, after major life events (marriage, divorce, birth, death, sale of a business), or when tax law changes meaningfully.
Yes. Attorney-client privilege protects every conversation and document — even from family members and during later probate proceedings.
Someone trustworthy, organized, and willing to serve — often a spouse, adult child, or professional fiduciary. We help you weigh the trade-offs of each option, especially in blended families.
Yes — for high-net-worth families, irrevocable, charitable, and generation-skipping trusts continue to play important roles, particularly with the exclusion amount scheduled to change.
Family-business succession is its own discipline — buy-sell agreements, voting structures, and divisions between active and inactive children. See our Business & Real Estate page.
Talk to an attorney — free consultation, no obligation.
The Sanger firm has represented my family for greater than a generation, creating and recreating our family trust and wills. I have solid trust in Howard's tenacious attention to detail.
Ready to talk to an attorney?
Free consultation. No obligation. Confidential.