The Journal — Plain-English Estate Law
Plain-English guidance on wills, trusts, probate, and protecting your family in California.
The Real Cost of a Sibling Standoff: How Inherited-Property Disputes Destroy California Families’ Wealth
Linda’s mother died in March, leaving the family home in the Ventura hills to Linda and her two brothers, equally, through her living trust. The house was worth…
Read →Building a Contest-Proof Estate Plan: The Capacity Documentation Playbook for California Families
Most trust and will contests in California do not succeed because the document was actually invalid. They succeed because, by the time anyone tried to prove it was…
Read →Estate Planning for Creators: Monetized Channels, Brand Deals, and California’s New Posthumous Publicity Rights
A monetized YouTube channel earning $15,000 a month does not automatically pass to your spouse, your kids, or your business partner when you die. Neither does an Instagram…
Read →AI-Drafted Wills and the Privilege Trap: What California Families Risk When They Use ChatGPT for Estate Planning
Eighty percent of legal professionals now say AI will have a high or transformational impact on their work within five years, according to Thomson Reuters’ 2025 Future of…
Read →The California Crypto Graveyard: What Happens When Digital Wealth Dies With Its Owner
A widower calls Ridley Law six weeks after his wife’s death. She traded cryptocurrency for years, logging in from a laptop that now sits in evidence of nothing…
Read →AHCD vs Living Will vs POLST – A California-Specific Guide to End-of-Life Documents
California has three terms for end-of-life documents, but only two are actual legal instruments. How the AHCD and POLST work together, and where the living will fits.
Read →The Small Estate Affidavit in 2026: California\x27s $208,850 Threshold and When It Actually Works
AB 2016 raised the small estate threshold to $208,850 for personal property and $750,000 for real property. Step-by-step guide to skipping probate.
Read →California Medi-Cal Estate Recovery Rules After AB 116 – What Families Actually Owe in 2026
AB 116 reinstated the Medi-Cal asset test in 2026. SB 833 still limits estate recovery to the probate estate only. What that means for your family.
Read →Want a straight read on where you stand?
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