Preserving Your Parent’s Low Property Tax on Trust Distribution After Prop. 19

Q. My mom owned her home for 25 years before she recently passed. Her trust leaves it 50-50 to my brother and me.  I would like to keep the home by purchasing my brother’s interest for cash, and he is okay with that.  Is there a way that we can do this without triggering a… Read More »

  Spouse on Medi-Cal?  May Be Time To Change Your Will

Q. My husband is in a nursing home and has qualified  for a Medi-Cal subsidy to help with care expenses. To qualify, I was obliged to take his name off of most of our bank accounts, so that almost everything is in my name now. However, I have my own health problems and I wonder… Read More »

How Grandparents Helped Humans Evolve

Q. Any thoughts for Grandparents Day, which this year is September 12, 2021? A. Yes. How about this: Archaeological evidence strongly suggests that increasing lifespans, which permitted the creation of an older generation (“grandparents”), played a key role in our evolutionary success. Indeed, this phenomenon may account for why we, as Homo sapiens, replaced archaic… Read More »