Turn research into results with the only California-specific legal know-how solution.
The Legal Know-How Solution for California Trust & Estate Attorneys.
Use Practitioner’s Workflows, How-To Guides, Strategy Notes, Charts, Checklists, and annotated Sample Documents to guide you from start to finish of your trust and probate administration matter, or your trust and probate lawsuit, including county-level guidance for 20 of California’s most populous counties.
Included Know-How Resources
We’re always updating and adding new content, but browse a list of selected content to decide whether Practitioner | Trusts & Estates is right for you:
Contests of wills, trusts, or other donative instruments
- Workflow: Contesting a Will or Trust
- Client Intake Checklist: Trust and Probate Disputes
- General Considerations When Using a Verified Petition
- Objection to Appointment of Personal Representative
- Sample Language: Pleading Forgery
- Sample Pleading Language: Undue Influence
- Checklist for Understanding Notice Requirements in Trust and Probate Litigation
- Contention Interrogatories: Undue Influence
- Sample Release of Claims & Settlement Agreement (Estate or Trust)
Fiduciary’s Accounting
- How to Force the Attorney-in-Fact to Account
- Cause of Action: Breach of Fiduciary Duty
- Checklist: Grounds for Removal of a Fiduciary
- Petition to Compel a Fiduciary to Account
- Objection to Petition to Compel a Fiduciary to Account
- How to Reply to Objection to a Fiduciary’s Accounting
Discovery in trust & probate litigation
- Prelitigation Investigation Checklist
- Tactical considerations in Developing a Discovery Plan for Trust Disputes
- Strategic Considerations Regarding Medical Records Privacy and the Deceased
- How to Determine the Validity of a Power of Attorney by a Non-Party
General Procedural & Strategic Considerations
- Checklist for Understanding Notice Requirements in Trust and Probate Litigation
- How to Navigate Local Trust and Estate Litigation Rules (Contra Costa County & other CA counties)
- Strategic Considerations in Making or Responding to a CCP 998 Offer in Estate and Trust Disputes
- Strategic Considerations in Negotiating and Drafting Settlement Agreements in Probate Disputes
- Understanding Standing in Trust and Probate Litigation
- General Considerations When Using a Verified Petition
- Strategic Considerations in Cost of Proof Sanctions with Requests for Admissions in Trust Litigation
- Attorney Client Privilege and Work Product Doctrine and the Deceased
Recovering property by the estate representative or trustee
- How to Set Aside an Intervivos Transfer Under Probate Code 850
- Characterization of Community and Separate Property
- Petition to Recover Property Under Probate Code 850 (with EADACPA Remedies)
- Petition to Recover and Quiet Title to Real Property (with EADACPA Remedies)
Claims by an omitted spouse or child
- Characterization of Community and Separate Property
- Cause of Action Checklist: Community Property Claims
- How to Quantify a Client’s Potential Financial Interest
- Cause of Action Checklist: Prenuptial or Postnuptial Agreements
- How to File a Petition for Appointment of Guardian Ad Litem for Minor or Incompetent
- Cause of Action Checklist: Disqualified Transfers
- Cause of Action: Alleging Putative Spouse Status
Elder law
- Checklist: Possible Elder Abuse Claims in Trusts and Probate Disputes
- Strategic Considerations in Elder Law Cases
- Navigating the SECURE Act in Trusts and Estates Litigation
- Crossover Issues: Elder Law Issues Arising in Trust and Probate Litigation
- Cause of Action Checklist: Medical Negligence
- Cause of Action Checklist: Elder or Dependent Adult Who Lacks Capacity
- Cause of Action Checklist: Lack of Capacity
- Complaint for Elder Financial Abuse (with EADACPA Remedies)
- Request for Admissions: Elder Financial Abuse
- Inspection Demand: Elder Financial Abuse
- Contention Interrogatories: Elder Financial Abuse
Probate Administration
- Probate Administration Client Interview Checklist
- How to Identify and Classify the Heirs and Beneficiaries
- How to Determine If Special Administration Is Required
- How to Petition for Appointment of a Probate Personal Representative
- How to Prepare, File, and Serve the Inventory and Appraisal
- Petition for Preliminary Distribution of Probate Estate
- First and Final Report and Accounting and Request for Distribution of Ancillary Probate
Trust Administration (Pre- and Post-Death)
- Letter of Trustee Resignation to Beneficiaries
- How to Inventory and Value Assets at Beginning of Trust Administration
- Inquiry Letter to Bank Regarding Accounts Owned by Decedent or Trust
- Petition to Approve Settlor’s Modification of Trust
- Petition to Approve Trust Decanting
- Checklist Concerning Facts About the Decedent’s Real Property
- Understanding the Parent/Child and Grandparent/Grandchild Property Tax Reassessment Exclusion
- How to Prepare an Inventory and Appraisal for a Trust
- Understanding the Required Tax Filings for Decedents, Trusts, and Estates
- Petition for Allocation of Decedent’s Debts Between Estate or Trust and Surviving Spouse
Workflows
Work smarter by accessing all Practitioner’s resources via Workflows that provide a logical and dynamic overview of major categories of work and legal tasks required by specific types of California state and federal cases. Find the specific resource you need, when you need it, while understanding how that resource fits into the broader context of your case.
How-To Guides
Spend less time navigating the local rules of court and multiple pages on each court’s website. Let the judges in the California counties and district courts you practice in guide you guide you through the proper procedure. Each How-To Guide provides clear, concise step-by-step guidance, including Judge’s Perspective notes, Practice Notes, and more.
Strategy Notes
The best lawyers always want to know how other experienced practitioners analyze the issues. Strategy Notes give you an outline of the key strategic and tactical considerations you should take into account when analyzing a new development in your practice area, approaching settlement negotiations, or advising your client.
Charts & Checklists
Not everything requires in-depth legal research. Sometimes all you need is a quick overview of the key tasks or issues, or a reminder to not to forget an important step. Includes Cause of Action Checklists that outline the key elements, statutes of limitations, relevant jury instructions, remedies, and damages for a particular claim.
Sample Documents
High-quality templates, forms, and standard clauses, with detailed Guidance Comment annotations explaining the document’s requirements, as well as how, when, or why to adapt the sample language or use an alternate clause. Downloadable in Word, either with or without Guidance Comments.
Included Practice Guides
All practice guides are fully integrated with CEB’s Primary Law with TrueCite, so you don’t have to switch to a different platform to ensure the cases you’re citing are still good law.
Business Entities
Elder Law
- California Elder Law Litigation: An Advocate’s Guide
- California Elder Law Resources, Benefits, and Planning: An Advocate’s Guide
Family Law
- California Marital Settlement and Other Family Law Agreements
- Crossover Issues in Estate Planning and Family Law
Real Property
Estate Planning
- California Estate Planning
- California Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives
- California Will Drafting
- Complete Plans for Small and Mid-Sized Estates
- Drafting California Irrevocable Trusts
- Drafting California Revocable Trusts
- Estate Planning Annual (2011 – 2019)
- Estate Planning and California Probate Reporter
- Funding a Revocable Trust
- Marital Deduction Subtrust Funding
Special Needs Trusts
Trust & Probate Litigation
Guardianships & Conservatorships
Law Practice Management
- California Basic Practice Handbook
- California Client Communications Manual: Sample Letters and Forms
- Fee Agreement Forms Manual
Probate Administration
Trust Administration
Still need primary law and secondary sources? Don’t worry, you get those, too.
Practitioner is your all-in-one practical guidance and legal research solution. All subscriptions include CEB’s primary law research tool with TrueCite™, our powerful case law citator. Plus, you get a comprehensive set of curated practice guides in your chosen practice area(s).
Primary Law with TrueCite™
Leverage our best-in-class legal search to find the most relevant content, fast. Narrow your results with advanced filters, including court, cause of action, procedural posture, and disposition. Coverage includes California Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. Supreme Court case law, as well as the California Codes and California Constitution. Plus, TrueCite™’s color-coded treatment flags let you know at a glance whether a case is still good law.
California-Focused Practice Guides
Rely on CEB’s expert community of contributing judges and lawyers to frame and organize the legal issues for you before you dive into case law research or start drafting. The most trusted and comprehensive California-specific practice guides available, in curated practice area libraries that meet the needs of California lawyers.
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