Author: Patricia De Fonte – Estate Planning Attorney

Choosing the right successor trustee is critical. Clients often believe that a family member or friend who works in finance or the law is the perfect option, but they fail to take into consideration the interpersonal dynamics that are often the biggest part of a successor trustee’s job. Managing beneficiary expectations with administrative duties is…

If you find yourself in the “sandwich generation” (caring for your children and your parents simultaneously), you need to know whether or not your parents have put together an estate plan. While the decisions your parents make about their estate plan (who gets what, who is in charge) is their own business, creating an estate…

Sunday, March 8th is International Women’s Day, and in the US the month of March is “Women’s History Month”. I am thinking a lot about the specific issues that women, who are most often in the role of caretakers, face in our society and how I can contribute my talents and expertise as an estate…

Cultivating meaningful professional relationships is important to me. The better my network of attorneys, finance and insurance professionals is the better I am able to counsel my clients and spot and mitigate risk. Lydia Hsu is a family law attorney in San Jose. Her firm is Foster Hsu. She sent me the information below. I…

One thing is certain: we Americans love our pets. The American Pet Products Association estimates that in 2017, pet owners spent an estimated $69.36 billion on their dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, and other domestic animals. The money spent isn’t only for pampering the pets, it also includes the necessary food, veterinary visits, and medications. So…

1. Workshops, Workshops, Workshops In addition to De Fonte Law PC’s educational workshops for young families, I have found great satisfaction in providing insights into estate planning issues to financial advisors and insurance professionals. And in doing this I have learned so much from these professionals – tips that have enriched my practice and made…

I firmly believe that estate planning is a social justice issue. A family that doesn’t have much can lose everything if they don’t have a personalized estate plan. I work with clients who have no real estate, no savings, and little retirement. With life insurance, we “create an estate” for their heirs. I also work…

Marriage and Estate Planning Go Hand In Hand Every married couple needs an estate plan. Your idea of “who owns what” may not be the reality under the law. Most married people are surprised that they need formal documents, thinking that their spouse can “step into their shoes” and automatically be able to care for…

Every month I think I will write about a legal topic – and then I sit down with a new client and I remember why I do this work. Personalization is key to a functioning estate plan. I recently met with a potential client who dutifully completed his estate plan in the month his son…

I wrote a newsletter regarding avoiding a will contest. Clients often think that a change to their estate plan is “simple” – they would simply like to change the names of the trustees and the names of the beneficiaries. This is exactly the type of change that would likely lead to litigation. I will not…