The Journal — Plain-English Estate Law
Plain-English guidance on wills, trusts, probate, and protecting your family in California.
What Happens to a Lottery Annuity When the Winner Dies?
The payments continue. They go to whoever you named on a California Lottery Beneficiary Designation Form, and if you never filed one, they go through your estate. Your…
Read →Giving Lottery Money to Family Without Wrecking Anyone
$19,000 per person per year is free and unreported in 2026. Tuition and medical bills paid straight to the school or the provider are unlimited. Above that you…
Read →Can a Trust Claim Lottery Winnings in California?
No. California Lottery Regulations § 5.4.1 requires that winners be natural persons, so a trust, an LLC, a partnership, and a blind trust are all ineligible to claim.…
Read →Can You Stay Anonymous After Winning the Lottery in California?
No. California publishes the winner’s name, the store that sold the ticket and where it is, the date, and the prize amount. It withholds your age, home address,…
Read →You Won the Lottery in California. What to Do Before You Claim It.
By Eric Ridley, California estate planning attorney, Ridley Law. Updated September 2026. California will publish your name. The trust everyone tells you to form before you claim cannot…
Read →How Do I Object to a Trustee’s Accounting, and By When?
You object by petitioning the court, and the deadline is shorter than most beneficiaries realise. The three-year clock in the Probate Code starts running from the account itself,…
Read →Can a Beneficiary Be Charged for the Trustee’s Legal Fees?
Not personally, in the ordinary case. But the trust pays the trustee’s lawyer out of assets that would otherwise be yours, so beneficiaries fund a good deal of…
Read →Beneficiary Designation vs Power of Attorney: Which Controls?
They never actually compete, because they operate at different times. A power of attorney works while the principal is alive and dies with them. A beneficiary designation does…
Read →Want a straight read on where you stand?
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