High-Net-Worth Estate Planning in Calabasas

High-Net-Worth Estate Planning in Calabasas

For the general framework, concentration, liquidity, privacy and where tax actually becomes an issue, see high-net-worth estate planning in California.

What is distinct about Calabasas is that the wealth is almost always inside structures. A residence in one entity, investment property in others, an operating business in a third, assembled over years by different advisors who never saw each other’s documents.

Read the operating agreements before the trust

This is the reversal that surprises people. The trust is not the controlling document for an entity-held estate. The operating agreement, partnership agreement or shareholder agreement is, and on death its transfer restrictions, consent requirements and buy-sell provisions generally decide what happens to the interest.

The failures are consistent. A trust directs a transfer the operating agreement prohibits, producing a deadlock discovered only at the death that triggers it. A buy-sell carries a price agreed years ago that no longer resembles what the interest is worth. Or a buy-sell obliges the surviving owners to purchase, with nothing funding the obligation, so the family holds a promise instead of a payment.

None of those are fixed by better trust drafting. They are fixed by amending the agreement, which is straightforward while everyone is alive and cooperative.

The provisions worth checking this month

Whether a revocable trust may hold and vote the interest at all. Many agreements restrict transfers, including to a trust, or require member consent that is easy to obtain now and awkward later.

Who acts for a member who has lost capacity. Silence here strands the entity even when the estate plan works.

How the price is set on a death or a buyout, when it was last reviewed, and whether anything funds it.

Whether the entities are actually operated as entities, with separate accounts, real records, and leases and insurance in the entity’s name. An LLC that is ignored in practice does not hold up, and at that point it has cost money and delivered nothing.

Dividing an entity-held estate

The general problem of dividing a concentrated estate is on the statewide page. The Calabasas version has an extra layer: interests in entities are harder to split than the underlying property, and a minority interest handed to a child who is not involved is worth considerably less to them than its arithmetic share, while still tying them to relatives they may not want to be in business with.

That argues for deciding which child takes which entity and equalizing elsewhere, rather than fractionalizing every interest across every child. The alternative is a family that jointly owns companies none of them chose to own together.

Questions Calabasas clients ask

Which document actually controls? For an entity-held estate, generally the operating agreement rather than the trust. Transfer restrictions, consent requirements and buy-sell provisions decide what happens to the interest on death, and they override the estate plan.

Can my trust hold the LLC? Usually yes, and it should, but the operating agreement has to permit a trust to hold and vote the interest. Some restrict it or require member consent, which is easy to arrange now and difficult later.

Our buy-sell has a price from years ago. Does that matter? It can be the most expensive line in the file. A fixed figure or an untested formula can transfer a valuable interest for a fraction of its worth, and the agreement generally beats the trust. Check when it was last reviewed and whether anything funds it.

Should each child get a share of every entity? Usually not. A minority interest is worth less to a child than its arithmetic share and ties them to co-owners they did not choose. Deciding who takes what and equalizing elsewhere generally works better.

Is this an estate tax conversation? Usually not. California has no estate tax and the federal exemption is $15 million per person in 2026. The statewide page covers where tax genuinely does become the issue.

Talk to Eric or call 805-244-5291. I serve Calabasas and the surrounding Conejo Valley communities.

The general framework is on high-net-worth estate planning in California. For the entity work itself, see entity formation and business succession in Calabasas. For the foundation, see living trusts in Calabasas.