by Andy Chen | May 11, 2018 | California, Estate Planning, Law, in real life, Statutes... and stuff
Previously, I made a post about how to make a will under California law. I also have a video on my Youtube channel about it. One issue that pops up a lot when drafting a will is how to — basically — disinherit someone. This might be done out of spite or might be done intentionally because, for instance, the spouse is independently wealthy or the person making the will has provided for their spouse in some other way already. The problem that arises is that many people who are writing their will think they can disinherit their spouse by simply leaving them out of the will. In other words, by not mentioning their spouse in the will, their spouse will be disinherited. This isn’t the case at all in California and it’s because of California Probate Code section 21610 which provides that the assumption is that omitting your spouse from your will was accidental and that, unless proven otherwise, your spouse will get: Half of the decedent’s community property, Half of the decedent’s quasi-community property, and A share of the decedent’s separate property equal to what the spouse would have received under California’s intestate succession scheme if the decedent had died without a will. This share, however, will be capped at half of the decedent’s separate property. If you do indeed want to leave your spouse nothing for any reason, you should look at section 21611 of the California Probate Code which basically says that the section 21610 presumption will not apply if: The spouse was omitted from the will intentionally and this intention is apparent in the...
by Andy Chen | Nov 9, 2017 | California, Law, in real life, Statutes... and stuff
We’ve probably all seen a movie or TV show with a scene where someone is dying and trying to make a will. Usually, this involves the person saying a line like “I, John Smith, being of sound mind and body, do make this my last will and testament…” Hollywood artistic license plays a large part in what you see on TV and in the movies, but the question of how to make a will is a good one. A post of two ago, I went over what happens to your stuff if you die without a will. Human nature makes it difficult for most people to imagine themselves dying, but death happens to all of us. Making a will doesn’t mean you hope to die, but it does make it easier for your friends and family or whoever else has to deal with the aftermath of you passing away. Having a will also makes it more likely that the stuff you’ve worked hard for and accumulated over your life actually goes to the people that you want to get it. In the United States, the laws and procedures by which you make a will are determined by each state. In California, the process to make a will is described in California Probate Code Section 6110 which specifies the following requirements. The person making the will is called the “testator”. Writing a will is also unlike writing any other document because the person who knows the most about the document (i.e. the will) will be dead by the time any questions arise about what this phrase or that phrase in...
by Andy Chen | Nov 7, 2017 | California, Individual, Law, in real life, Statutes... and stuff
If you’re in California and either contemplating a divorce or just learning about them just in case, one important distinction to know is whether your marriage is “short-term” or “long-term”. As I’ll explain, it’s not a difficult distinction to keep straight, but it is important to know for at least two reasons: (1) different rules apply depending on which category your case is in, and (2) lawyers and judges will often use the words “short-term” and “long-term” very casually so it’s important to know what they mean. Simply put, a marriage is “short-term” is generally one that is less than 10 years in duration. Conversely, a marriage is generally “long-term” if it is 10 or more years in duration. See California Family Code section 4336(b). This 10-year mark is not set in stone, though. It is possible for a long-term marriage to be less than 10 years long and for a marriage longer than 10 years long to be considered short-term. As with many things in the law, it all depends on the situation. There are many areas in which this short versus long distinction is important. The most common one I see is when it comes to determining permanent spousal support under California Family Code section 4320, specifically section 4320(l). If your marriage is short-term, section 4320(l) can place a limit on the duration of permanent spousal support of half the length of the marriage. If your marriage is long-term, then this “half the length” limitation may not apply. As I said earlier, though, there is no way to say for sure whether your marriage is long or...
by Andy Chen | Oct 24, 2017 | California, Law, in real life, Statutes... and stuff
A will and/or a trust is probably something that a lot of people hear that they should have. Most people probably don’t, however, because human nature is that way. In this blog post, I’m going to go over what happens if you die without any estate planning documents at all. Any one of us can, unfortunately, die all of a sudden so this post is likely not as theoretical as a lot of us would like to think. I’m going to talk specifically about California, but the concept I’ll go over (i.e. Intestate Succession) is not unique to California. Other states in the US recognize it also. As always, however, if you’re outside of California, you need to look up the particular rules for Intestate Succession in your state. In describing what happens to you if you die without a will or a trust, I’ll also illustrate one of the reasons why you should not wait to get divorced. Intestate Succession Intestate succession is the generic term for what happens if you die without a will or a trust. As a reminder, California has specific requirements that a will and a trust have to meet in order to be valid. If your will or trust doesn’t meet those requirements and you die, it’s like you didn’t have a will or trust at all. Intestate Succession is a set of rules that governs who gets your stuff when you die. If you leave a will or a trust, you can specify who you want (or don’t want, as the case may be) to get your stuff. You can leave things...
by Andy Chen | Sep 12, 2017 | California, Individual, Law, in real life
In a divorce case, one of the big things that the courts in California will decide is custody and visitation of any minor children that the divorcing parties may have. I haven’t checked, but this is probably not unique to California. As always, check the laws of your particular state or country, but if you’re in the United States but outside of California, the court presiding over a divorce will likely determine child custody and visitation also. To be clear, custody and visitation are not interchangeable terms. As they are commonly used in California, “visitation” refers to the schedule by which the child will visit with the parent they do not regularly live with. For instance, if the child lives with Mom regularly, then visitation refers to the schedule under which the child visits with Dad. There could be a visitation schedule for regular or routine weeks and a different schedule for other times of the year, such as holidays and the child’s summer vacation from school. Custody — again, as used in California — refers to two kinds: (1) legal custody, and (2) physical custody. Legal custody refers to the right of a parent to decide things related to the child’s schooling, medical care, and religious education. As a rule of thumb, legal custody is at play whenever a parent has to sign a permission slip (e.g school field trip) of some kind for the child to do something. Physical custody refers to who the child lives with. A common custody arrangement might, therefore, be “shared legal custody and primary physical custody to Mom with Dad having visitation”....
by Andy Chen | Sep 10, 2017 | California, Law, in real life, New York, Statutes... and stuff
California is a community property state when it comes to divorces. The idea of community property is not difficult to understand in the abstract — colloquially, you might have heard it as the rule that in a divorce, you get (or lose) of the stuff. See California Family Code section 2550. Property is basically put in to one of three categories: (1) stuff owned by spouse #1 from before the marriage, (2) stuff owned by spouse #2 from before the marriage, and (3) stuff that the two spouses acquired while they were married. The property in category (3) is divided in half — again see California Family Code section 2550 — while the property in (1) and (2) goes to each spouse respectively. Applying the idea of community property in the real world is not so simple. First, the spouses will argue about which category (1, 2, or 3) a particular piece of property falls in to. Second, if each spouse acquires property after they separate, determining when that property was acquired relative to the separation date can also be argued about, sometimes extensively. Third, it can often be confusing, such as when property was purchased prior to the marriage and financed or paid for partly during the marriage. Houses often fall in to this category. If you’re dealing with a California divorce where a house was purchased by one spouse before the marriage, but the mortgage was paid for during the marriage, you may be interested in something called a Moore-Marsden computation. Community property in divorces is the exception rather than the rule in the United States. The...
