Estate Planning

Scott D. Fisher & Associates, A Professional Corporation provides comprehensive estate planning services for clients, including estate planning document preparation, probate representation, trust administration, and related litigation. Whether you are single, married, or in a domestic partnership, it is essential to proactively plan your estate through the preparation of estate planning documents carefully-drafted to meet your unique needs and goals. From our offices in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, we assist clients throughout Southern California.

Estate Planning

Our firm can assist you in creating a comprehensive estate plan to address your individual needs and long-term goals. Estate planning is the process of arranging for the transfer of your property and assets in the most effective manner given the circumstances of your estate, including your family needs and obligations, the nature and size of your estate, and any tax consequences.  As experienced estate planning attorneys, we prepare a wide array of estate planning documents tailored to your specific needs and goals, including:

• Wills: Our firm prepares simple wills for clients, as well as pour-over wills, which are wills designed to work in unison with a living trust. A will is a written document that allows you to designate beneficiaries of your estate and an executor to manage and distribute the estate upon death. A will also allows you to nominate guardians for your minor children.
• Revocable Living Trusts: Our firm prepares living trusts and can assist you in properly funding your trust with assets. A living trust is an entity created during your lifetime, which allows you to designate a "trustee" to manage the assets of your trust, as well as beneficiaries who will receive the assets of the trust after you pass away.
• Financial Powers of Attorney: A durable financial power of attorney is a written document that allows you to designate a person or persons to manage your financial affairs in the event that you become incapacitated.
• Advance Health Care Directives: Advance health care directives, also known as durable powers of attorney for health care and living wills, allow you to designate a person or persons to make medical decisions on your behalf in the event you become incapacitated.

Probate Representation

Our firm assists clients with probating wills and in the administration of estates where the decedent died "intestate," or without a will.  Probate is the court-supervised process where the court oversees the administration of a decedent's estate, ensuring that taxes and other debts and expenses are paid, and that the remaining estate is distributed in accordance with the terms of the decedent's will and any testamentary trusts, or by California's law of intestate succession if there is no will.

Trust Administration

Our attorneys offer comprehensive representation for trustees to assist in the administration of the estates they manage. We assist designated trustees in fulfilling the statutory and fiduciary obligations they owe to an estate, and we can advise trustees on how to minimize their potential risk for liability and disputes among beneficiaries. We assist trustees in all aspects of the estate and trust administration process, including accounting, distribution, and otherwise dealing with heirs and beneficiaries.

Probate & Trust Litigation

As experienced litigators, our attorneys represent fiduciaries and beneficiaries in connection with probate and trust disputes. We represent clients in a wide range of disputes, including intra-family disputes, wills contests, allegations of estate mismanagement or breach of fiduciary duty by a trustee or executor, and other claims by beneficiaries.

Southern California Estate Planning Attorneys

At Scott D. Fisher & Associates, A Professional Corporation, attorneys Scott Fischer and Johnny Ogata, have the experience and skill you need to guide you through the estate planning process. To help us tailor our services to your needs, we have developed an Estate Planning Questionnaire for you to complete prior to our consultation. To schedule your free initial consultation, contact our Palms Springs or Los Angeles offices today.