Straight answers to the questions people ask first.

Yes. The first conversation costs nothing and carries no obligation. It exists so you can describe your situation and get an honest view of the options, including the option of doing nothing. If the firm takes the matter on, the fee and the timeline go in writing before any work begins.

No. The office is at 4667 MacArthur Blvd. in Newport Beach and you are welcome there, but consultations also happen by phone and by video. Clients are served throughout California, and most matters never require an in person meeting.

It depends on the matter. Estate planning is usually a flat fee quoted once the scope is clear. Tax and bankruptcy work is quoted after the first conversation, because the work involved differs enormously between a single notice and a multi year dispute. Whatever the arrangement, you get it in writing before anything starts.

Whatever you already have, in whatever state it is in. For a tax matter, every notice you have received. For bankruptcy, proof of income and a rough list of who you owe. For estate planning, any existing will or trust and a rough picture of what you own. Nothing needs to be organised or complete.

Communications made to seek legal advice are generally privileged even if you do not go on to hire the firm. That said, please do not send confidential details through the website contact form or by email until the office has confirmed it represents you. Call if the matter is sensitive.

A will directs who receives your property, but it does not avoid probate. A revocable living trust generally does. Which one fits depends on what you own, whether you own real property, whether minor children or a beneficiary with special needs are involved, and how much you care about privacy. Many plans use both.

Assets properly transferred into a living trust during your lifetime pass outside probate. The common failure is a trust that was signed but never funded, so the house stayed in the individual's name and went through probate anyway. Funding is the part that matters, and it is the part most often left undone.

California's intestacy rules decide, not you. Community property generally passes to the surviving spouse. Separate property is divided between the spouse and other relatives in proportions that depend on who survives you. The court also appoints the administrator and, if there are minor children, is involved in guardianship. It is rarely the outcome people would have chosen.

Review it after any marriage, divorce, birth, death, move to or from California, sale or purchase of real property, or significant change in what you own. Absent any of those, every three to five years is sensible, because the law changes even when your life does not.

Sometimes, and the estate tax is only part of it. The income tax basis your beneficiaries inherit, how retirement accounts are left, and how a business interest passes often matter more to a California family than the federal estate tax does. This is the point at which estate planning and tax planning stop being separate questions.