The Copenbarger & Copenbarger Law Firm is dedicated to providing quality detailed and professional work to our clients. There are many proprietary and unique pieces of our documents that set us apart from others in our field, which stem from the more than 150 years of combined experience of our attorneys. Call today to schedule your free attorney consultation.
To better educate our existing clients and potential new clients, Copenbarger & Copenbarger offers free seminars and events across California.
These events provide up to date changes in the law, new estate planning strategies and relevant examples of how you and your family can better protect the things that matter most to you. To view our upcoming events, click the button below.
No matter how large or how small, everyone has an estate, and everyone has something in common-you can’t take it with you when you die.
Estate plans not only transfer property after one’s death, they assist in the transfer of the control of businesses, the establishment of guardians for dependents, the financial care of dependents, the establishment of care for the settlors, and can even help ease tax burdens.
The most common estate planning instruments are wills and living trusts.
Contrary to what you may believe, even if you don’t currently posses a will or a living trust, you have an estate plan. Your plan is what the state has set forth in the Probate Code. Persons who want more control over the final distribution of their property or destination of their children need to plan ahead of time so that they can avoid using the state’s plan.
A living trust is a legal document that, just like a will, contains your instructions for what you want to happen to your assets when you die. But, unlike a will, a living trust can avoid probate at death, control all your assets and prevent the court from controlling your assets if you become incapacitated.
Upon the death of a trust maker, or Settler, our law firm offers legal services to your successor trustee. The trustee is responsible for seeing that the assets of the trust are distributed properly and in a timely manner. An overview of the valuable guidance we provide includes:
If you have lost a loved one, whether they died without a testamentary document, or died with a will of a living trust, we can help you. Please contact our law office so we can guide and help you during this very difficult time.
Anyone who is currently administering a trust or who will someday be responsible for the administration of a trust could benefit from our expertise.
Probate is the administration of a deceased person’s estate when the decedent died without an estate plan or with a Last Will and Testament.
Probate Administration is a Court process that occurs after a person dies. During this process, a person’s probate assets are collected, his or her creditors are paid, and then the remaining assets are distributed to his or her beneficiaries in accordance with his or her will. Probate assets are all assets that the decedent owned, in his or her name alone, when he or she died. If a person left a will, the will determines the distribution of those assets.
Probate proceedings assisted by our law firm involve the transfer of the deceased person’s assets without formal court proceedings when possible.
In order to determine who, the decedent selected to administer his or her estate, locate the decedent’s will. The person named as the administrator must file the will with the court and petition to open the process of probate. When the administrator’s petition is granted, the process of probate officially begins.
Protecting your estate from being lost due to a catastrophic illness and qualifying for Medi-Cal is possible, if you understand all the relevant laws. We know the laws and we can help you in these times of need.
When anyone is confronted with a serious illness that may require long term care, whether we are being taken care of at home or in a nursing home, we are faced with a tremendous financial burden.
How we address this financial burden depends on whether we have enough resources of our own, as in savings accounts that are earmarked for these types of emergencies, or whether we have long term care insurance.
The reality is that very few of us have the individual resources or have obtained long term care insurance. Few people have long-term care insurance or can afford to pay the high cost of nursing home care out-of-pocket, most people eventually wind up applying and trying to qualify for Medi-Cal.
Medicaid, or Medi-Cal as it is called in California is an insurance program that is funded partially by the Federal government and the State of California.
Our firm can assist clients in the litigation of an estate by counseling our client throughout the entire litigation process. We represent both trustees and beneficiaries when an estate runs into complications.
We are ready to assist anyone defending or pursuing legal remedies to ensure estates are administered properly.
We represent either trustees or beneficiaries when disagreements arise during the administration of an estate.
Whether you’re a rental property owner that wants their estate protected or a trustee that need annual tax filings, we can help.
The attorneys at Copenbarger & Copenbarger, LLP. can assist clients in the establishment of business entities by counseling the client on the type of entity that will satisfy the client’s objectives, by preparing and filing the necessary documents to ensure that the entity has been established as required by law, and by maintaining ongoing business counsel relations with the client after the entity is established.
We would be happy to assist anyone establishing a new business or managing a current business that needs representation due to legal, tax, or corporate governance matters.
Tax planning is used to minimize the client’s income and estate tax consequences for their estates through the use of business entities, trusts, and other tax strategies and is essential for those who believe they are subjected to too much tax.
Not only do our attorneys have decades of experience working with high net worth individuals and estates but many of our attorneys have advanced tax planning degrees and credentials. We have two certified specialists in probate, estate planning, and trust law by the California Board of Legal Specialization and three others that will soon earn their certifications.
Throughout our forty year history we have worked with the Christian community and other charitable organizations to bring charitable planning to their donors and members. In fact, our planning has helped facilitate over a billion dollars back to non-profit organizations.
Whether you need advanced estate or income tax planning or are looking to turn tax dollars into charity dollars, we can help.