A will is one of the best-known estate-planning documents, but it is not the entire estate plan.
For many California families, effective planning involves much more: how a home is titled, who can make decisions during incapacity, how assets pass to beneficiaries, what happens to a trust after death and how unusual circumstances are addressed.
Those questions become even more important when a family has accumulated significant California real estate, has beneficiaries with special needs, owns assets in different forms or is working with an older estate plan.
This is where experience can make a meaningful difference.
Robert P. Bergman has practiced in Santa Clara County since 1980 and has focused on estate planning and trusts since 1981. His current practice includes custom estate plans as well as trust administration, special needs trusts, Heggstad petitions and trust modification petitions.
