What we do

Estate planning

A set of documents that decides who handles your affairs and who receives what, so that your family is not left guessing and a court is not asked to decide it for them.

Living trust

The document most of this is built around. It holds your house and your accounts during your life, under your control, so that when you die they pass to the people you named without going through court.

Power of attorney and advance health care directive

The two documents that say who speaks for you about money and about medical care if you cannot speak for yourself. They matter while you are alive, which is the thing people least expect and the reason they are worth signing early.

Asset protection

(ASSET PROTECTION DESCRIPTION, SHADI TO SUPPLY THE LEGAL WORDING)

Advanced tax planning

Structuring larger or more complicated estates, businesses, and holdings so that the tax bill at the end is the one you chose rather than the one you defaulted into.

Elder law and Medi-Cal planning

The rules that decide who pays for long-term care, and what that means for the family home.

Special needs planning

Leaving money to someone with a disability in a way that supports them without costing them the benefits they rely on.

Trust administration

What the person named as trustee actually has to do after a death: the notices, the accounting, the taxes, and the distributions. It is a legal duty with real exposure, and most people are doing it for the first time while grieving.

California probate

The court process that handles an estate when there was no trust. It is public, it takes a long time, and the base cost is set by statute rather than by us.

“I kind of make the analogy of Disneyland. You know, it's expensive to get in, and then once you're in it's even more money. Probate's the same way.”

“Not a penny of that goes into our pocket.”

Shadi Ala’i Shaffer, explaining probate cost on the radio

If somebody has just died and you do not know what you are supposed to do first, start here, and start today.