The Journal — Plain-English Estate Law
Plain-English guidance on wills, trusts, probate, and protecting your family in California.
Life Estate vs. Transfer-on-Death Deed vs. Trust in California
Three ways to pass your home: a life estate, a revocable TOD deed, or a living trust. An honest comparison of control, cost, and who each one actually…
Read →Buying Out a Sibling on an Inherited House Without Losing the Prop 19 Basis
How to buy out your siblings on an inherited California home and keep the low property-tax basis — why a third-party trust loan, not a cash buyout, protects…
Read →Capital Gains on an Inherited House in California (2026)
Do you pay capital gains on an inherited California home? How the step-up in basis works, the community-property double step-up, and why gifting a house is often worse.
Read →Does a Living Trust File a Tax Return? (California, 2026)
While you're alive, a revocable living trust files no separate tax return and needs no EIN. What changes after death, the Form 1041, and the 645 election —…
Read →Estate Tax Portability in California: The 706 Most Families Skip
Portability lets a surviving spouse keep the first spouse's unused $15M exemption — but only if you file a 706. The real 5-year deadline, and who actually needs…
Read →Do You Still Need a SLAT After the 2026 Tax Law? (California)
The 2026 exemption sunset that drove SLAT urgency was repealed. When a spousal lifetime access trust still makes sense in California — and when it doesn't.
Read →Inheriting an Annuity in California: Your Options and the Tax
Inherited an annuity? Your payout options under IRC 72(s), why annuities get no step-up in basis, and how the gain is taxed as ordinary income in California.
Read →Can You Change an Irrevocable Trust in California?
Irrevocable doesn't mean untouchable. Beneficiary consent, court modification, decanting, and trust protectors — the real ways to change an irrevocable trust in California.
Read →Want a straight read on where you stand?
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