Estate Planning Attorney in Encino

Real property is generally governed by the law of the state where it is located. A California will cannot transfer title to a cabin in another state on its own authority, and a deed prepared for Los Angeles County may not satisfy another state's requirements. When no trust holds the cabin, the family may need a separate court proceeding in that state, often alongside the California case. 

The Encino owner bought the cabin in an individual name, and the family assumes the California plan covers it. Whether it does depends on how the cabin is titled and on the law of that state. Gold Law raises the question early and may recommend involving a lawyer licensed there. 

A trust can hold property in more than one state once each parcel is properly deeded to the trustee. The successor trustee, the person who takes over management of the trust, can then often manage or sell the property without opening a court case where it is located. That result depends on a deed recorded correctly under that state's rules and on the successor trustee's ability to show authority to a buyer or title company there.

Proposition 19 narrowed the parent to child exclusion from property tax reassessment. Reassessment means the county sets a new taxable value, usually closer to market value, after a change in ownership. Gold Law explains how the rule works in general, which is not tax advice, and refers questions about a specific parcel to the county assessor. 

Picture parents who plan to leave the duplex to one child and the family home to another without checking how each transfer is taxed. The two children could receive very different property tax bills, even though the parents meant to treat them equally. A carefully drafted plan can account for that difference, for example by adjusting other gifts.

Property left outside a trust usually passes through probate. For an Encino resident, that case belongs in the Los Angeles Superior Court, where Gold Law files and appears from its Camarillo office. Probate filings are generally public, so the court file can show what the property was and who received it. 

Imagine two siblings who inherit their mother's Encino condominium with no trust in place and want to sell it. They cannot give a buyer a valid deed until the court appoints someone with authority to sign. A recorded deed to a trustee would have let a successor trustee handle the sale without waiting for an appointment.

Property owners across the valley bring the same titling questions. Gold Law works with families in Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Woodland Hills, Van Nuys, Northridge, Calabasas, Burbank and Santa Clarita. Encino is one of several Los Angeles County communities the firm serves from its Camarillo office. 

Owners often hold parcels in more than one county, and each county runs its own recorder and assessor. For an owner with an Encino rental and a Ventura County home, one trust can hold both properties, with a deed recorded in each county. For Woodland Hills clients with retirement accounts, the beneficiary forms receive the same review. Couples buying a first home together in Sherman Oaks need the deed and the trust to agree from the start.