San Mateo California Estate Planning Law Blog

Unlike child support, there is no statutory formula for calculating spousal support. When a judge is issuing a final order for spousal support, under California Family Code, Section 4320, he or she may take the following factors into account.

One factor is the earning capacity of each spouse and whether it is enough to keep up the standard of living the couple enjoyed while married. When determining earning capacity, the judge will consider the marketable skills of the spouse seeking support and the applicable job market wherein the spouse can utilize these skills. The court will also take into account the time and cost it will take for a spouse seeking support to obtain these skills.

When a person in California dies, their loved ones will grieve. However, this grief is only amplified if the person's survivors disagree with the contents of the person's trust. Sometimes, these disagreements are small enough that the parties involved can resolve them on their own. But, these disagreements are so big that they lead to trust litigation. This may be especially true if one party believes the deceased was unduly influenced when he or she executed or modified the trust.

For example, as a person ages, they start to lose their physical and mental abilities. When such persons are vulnerable, a loved one might try to influence their estate planning. Though, to constitute undue influence, the person's actions must go beyond mere nagging. The person's behavior needs to be so extreme that it leads their aging loved one to give in and modify their estate plan in a way that either favors that person or disfavors other beneficiaries.

Home may be where the heart is, but when a couple divorces, the home is not just a place with sentimental value -- it is often one of the couple's most financially valuable marital assets. Some spouses in California may be eager to leave what was a place filled with unhappy memories, while other spouses may be itching to stay established in the home they have been in for years, especially if they have custody of the children. However, there are important things to consider when it comes to the family home and divorce.

If a spouse wants to keep the family home, they will have to consider the expenses associated with home ownership. For example, repairs are inevitable, the mortgage will need to be paid, as will taxes and insurance. Moreover, once the divorce is final, the party keeping the home will be responsible for these costs on a single income. Therefore, before fighting for the family home, it is important to consider whether one can actually afford the home post-divorce.

Building an estate plan is not a simple process, especially in states like California, which carries more regulations and additional taxes than many others. Once a person begins looking into estate planning, they might easily get overwhelmed by the variety and complexity of the financial planning tools available.

This is perfectly reasonable. After all, estate planning professionals study the field for years and regularly review new laws and financial tools to make sure they maintain a clear, functional understanding of changing guidelines. While it is certainly possible for individuals to build their own estate plan without any guidance, the risks to doing so are enormous.