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Estate Planning › Undue Influence Claims › Elder Issues

Estate Planning is a process where individuals prepare or plan for the settlement of their personal affairs in the event of incapacitation or death. Estate plans typically include provisions relating to the... more +
Estate Planning is a process where individuals prepare or plan for the settlement of their personal affairs in the event of incapacitation or death. Estate plans typically include provisions relating to the disposition of assets, guardianship of minor children, and appointment of representatives to make medical and financial decisions. Effective estate planning can decrease tax liability and facilitate the probate process.  less -
Downey Brand LLP

Alzheimer’s Association Offers Helpful Roadmap on Dementia

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Dementia casts a long shadow in California trust and estate litigation. Contestants claim that an elder with dementia lacked sufficient mental capacity to make an estate planning change, or that dementia left the elder highly...more

Winstead PC

Undue Influence, Detecting Elder Abuse, and the Duty to Report Financial Exploitation

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Author David F. Johnson recently presented his paper on “Undue Influence, Detecting Elder Abuse, and the Duty to Report Financial Exploitation” to the Austin Probate Bar Association in Austin, Texas, on May 20, 2022. This...more

Foster Swift Collins & Smith

How Should We Celebrate Elder Law Month?

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With 2020 in the rear view mirror and 2021 well underway, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to generate urgency for elder law planning for those most at risk. May is National Elder Law Month which allows the opportunity to...more

Ward and Smith, P.A.

How to Contest a Will: The Basics

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We all know that a person can control who will own his or her property after death by signing a will. But when questions arise as to the circumstances surrounding the signing of the will, what can be done to challenge it? ...more

Downey Brand LLP

New California Statutes Change Spousal Undue Influence Presumptions

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California trust and estate disputes often involve allegations that a surviving spouse took advantage of a deceased spouse so as to get more of the latter’s assets. Often the “spousal financial abuse” charges are leveled by...more

Downey Brand LLP

California Assisted Living Residents Are Vulnerable to Financial Elder Abuse

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As our population ages, more of our seniors are moving into assisted living facilities. The number of such facilities has nearly tripled over the past two decades, with construction of memory care units the fastest-growing...more

Downey Brand LLP

Elder Abuse Is Not a Trojan Horse – Bad Faith Must Be Shown for Double Damages Under Probate Code Section 859

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Probate Code section 859, our subject in a recent post, packs a punch in California trust litigation. It awards double damages against someone who in bad faith wrongfully takes property from an elder, in bad faith takes...more

Downey Brand LLP

California Legislature Cracks Down on Caregivers Who Marry Dependent Adults

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Many California financial elder abuse cases we see involve caregivers. While the vast majority are honest, a caregiver who spends many hours alone with a vulnerable client has a unique opportunity to exploit the situation. A...more

Downey Brand LLP

Probate Code Section 859 Provides a Double Size Hammer

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What do you do if someone steals money or property from a trust or estate? California Probate Code section 850 allows you to ask the Superior Court to order the thief to give the money or property back. To discourage such...more

Downey Brand LLP

A Neuropsychologist’s Take on Mental Capacity Evaluation

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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,”...more

Smith Debnam Narron Drake Saintsing & Myers,...

What is Undue Influence in Will Caveat Cases?

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In order to set aside a Will after a person has died, a Caveator (the person attacking the Will) has three courses of action under the law. First, he can assert that the Testator (the person making the Will) was incompetent...more

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