Best Estate Planning Attorneys in Santa Monica, CA

I've been in Estate Planning Business for 35 years and am still shocked. I still cling to a belief, maybe naively, even after all that I've seen, that people should act reasonably in a way that makes people not feel like they have to battle to get to administer their parents' trust in the estate. Because in a situation like three kids dividing everything into equal shares, end the story, but that's not the end of the story, especially if you have children who are adult children now who have always had a tense relationship between them. Nevertheless, there's primarily unresolved family baggage or the baggage that comes from Mom and Dad as they gave more during their lifetime to one than to the others. Therefore, even though everything goes to all three of us in equal shares, it is not perceived as equal because the scorecard of the lifetime gifts was different. These emotions come up, and sometimes, greed can be helpful. Ambition can make people get along to administer their parents' estate so that there's less and less friction meaning everybody gets their part sooner and gets their share without having been watered by attorney's fees. We would think that that's just out of self-interest it's like, "gee I, I've always hated my sister. I feel like battling her on some aspect of the inheritance plan, but I know that's going to reduce the share I'm going to get, and it's going to take a lot longer, so I'm just going to get along to go along", and that is a common viewpoint.