Estate Planning Attorney in Westlake Village
Many estate plans that no longer work were drafted with care. Their authors simply planned for a simpler set of assets. That might mean one house and one job, rather than a company, three entities and two brokerage accounts. That gap is a common reason someone looks for an estate planning attorney in Westlake Village to review an existing plan.
The first step is mapping, not drafting. What do you own, and how is each asset titled today? The answer often surprises owners. Title drifts as a business grows, and no one checks it against the plan.
Gold Law has practiced from Camarillo since 1998 and handles Westlake Village matters regularly. Marissa Garcia owns the firm and serves as its Managing Attorney. The firm is deliberately small, so a complex file receives an attorney's direct attention.
If you signed your plan before you acquired your current assets, call Gold Law at (805) 388-8800 and schedule an appointment. Bring the trust and any entity documents to the first meeting.
What Our Westlake Village Estate Planning Attorney Does When You Own Part of a Company
A company interest is property, and the estate plan decides who receives it. Gold Law names that person in your trust and prepares an Assignment of Shares or Interest that moves the interest into the trust. The company's own documents govern who manages it afterward. Those documents belong to your business attorney, and Gold Law does not draft or amend them. Estate planning for an owner covers the ownership side only.
The two sides still have to agree. An operating agreement, a buy sell agreement and a trust all describe what happens to an interest, often written at different times by different lawyers. Consider a founder whose trust divides the company equally among three children while the operating agreement restricts transfers to current members. When the documents disagree, the operating agreement often controls, because it is the contract the other owners signed.
Shares in a corporation follow the same pattern. The assignment moves the shares into the trust, and the corporation then records the trust as the shareholder. Where the bylaws or a shareholder agreement leave the transfer unclear, the corporation's own counsel answers that question.
How an Operating Agreement and a Trust Can Contradict Each Other
Operating agreements commonly restrict who may hold an interest, require consent before a transfer, or give the company a right to buy the interest back. A trust drafted without reading that agreement can direct an interest somewhere the agreement will not allow it to go. Gold Law reads the agreement before drafting and writes the trust to fit it. If the agreement itself should change, that amendment goes to your business attorney.
Why an Existing Buy Sell Agreement Shapes Your Estate Plan
A buy sell agreement is a contract among owners setting out what happens to an interest on death, disability, retirement or departure. It usually names who may buy the interest and on what terms. Where one exists, it often controls the outcome regardless of what a trust says, so Gold Law writes the trust around it. Drafting or updating a buy sell agreement is work for your business attorney. When a purchase happens after a death, the successor trustee is often the seller, and that step becomes part of trust administration.
Where an Estate Planning Attorney's Work Ends and a Business Attorney's Begins
Gold Law prepares the trust, the pour over will, the powers of attorney and the Assignment of Shares or Interest. It does not form entities, draft operating agreements or bylaws, or negotiate buy sell terms. When the plan shows that an operating agreement needs an amendment, Gold Law refers you to your business attorney for that change. The work goes more smoothly when each lawyer knows what the other is doing.
How a Westlake Village Trust Attorney Explains the Federal Estate Tax Exemption
The federal estate tax applies to what a person transfers at death, but only above a threshold, and the threshold is high. Most estates never reach it. Knowing the number tells you whether the question applies to you at all.
The Internal Revenue Service puts the basic exclusion amount at $15,000,000 for estates of decedents dying in 2026, following the law signed on July 4, 2025. The 2025 figure was $13,990,000. For a married couple, the question is often less about the first death than about what the survivor's estate looks like later. That is a planning conversation rather than a tax filing conversation.
What the Current Federal Exemption Means for a Married Couple
Each spouse has their own exclusion amount. What happens to the first spouse's unused portion is the part couples tend not to know about, and it does not happen automatically. Years later the survivor holds everything in one estate measured against one exclusion. Whether that matters depends on the size of the estate and on what was done at the first death.
How Portability Works and Why It Has to Be Claimed
Portability is the mechanism that lets a surviving spouse use the deceased spouse's unused exclusion. It is not automatic. The executor of the first spouse's estate must elect it on a federal estate tax return. That return may be needed even when no tax is owed. Families who skip that filing because the estate was clearly under the threshold may give up the benefit without knowing it existed.
Why the Annual Gift Exclusion Is a Separate Number
The annual gift exclusion is what one person can give another in a year without using any of the lifetime exclusion. Staying under it also avoids a gift tax return. The IRS puts it at $19,000 per recipient for 2026. It is separate from the estate exclusion and is the one most families use. Review larger gifts with your CPA before you make them.
Why an Estate Planning Attorney Works Alongside Your CPA on Tax Questions
Your attorney builds the structure and drafts the documents. Your CPA runs the numbers, handles the filings and explains what a given step does to your return. Gold Law explains what the tax is and when the question arises, then refers anything specific to your accountant. Coordination works in both directions, because an attorney who has seen the returns knows which entities are active and which have been dormant for years.
What an Estate Planning Attorney Reviews When Your Assets Sit in More Than One Entity
The review lists every asset and how it is titled today. Title may sit in an individual name, in joint names, in an entity or in the trust. Once the list exists, the gaps are easy to see, and they are rarely where the owner expected.
How a Westlake Village Estate Planning Lawyer Plans Around Real Property Held in an LLC or Partnership
Which Court Hears Westlake Village Matters and Why Our Camarillo Attorneys Confirm the County First
Where Else Our Westlake Village Estate Planning Attorneys Serve Owners and Families
Book a Planning Session With an Estate Planning Attorney in Westlake Village
If your plan was written before the company, the second property or the third account, that is a reason to review it. Gold Law will map what you own against what your documents control and show you the gaps.
Bring the existing trust, any share certificates or membership records, and copies of the operating agreement and any buy sell agreement. Gold Law drafts the trust to fit them. A list of what you own, noting how each item is titled, is especially useful.
The first meeting is a review rather than a sales conversation. Some owners need only a few changes to their existing documents. Others find the structure no longer fits. You will know which applies before you commit to anything.
The office is located at 484 Mobil Avenue, Suite 26, Camarillo, CA 93010. Hours run Monday through Thursday 9am to 5pm and Friday 9am to 1pm. To speak with an estate planning attorney in Westlake Village, call (805) 388-8800 or write to the firm to book a free consultation. Owners with full calendars can hold the review by video or phone instead of at the office. Marissa Garcia owns the firm and is a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law, a credential awarded by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.
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