real estate | The California Legal Blog

Announcing the Change of Firm Name from Anker Reed HSC to Anker, Hymes & Schreiber, LLP

Larry S. Hymes and Douglas K. Schreiber are pleased to announce that Anker Reed HSC has become Anker, Hymes & Schreiber, LLP and will continue the Anker Reed HSC tradition of serving your legal needs in the areas of:

Estate Planning and Estate and Trust Litigation
Business Formation, Transactions and Litigation
Real Estate Transactions and Litigation.

The law firm’s headquarters will remain at its current location:

21333 Oxnard Street, First Floor
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Phone: (818) 501-5800
Fax: (818) 501-4019

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on January 7, 2013 at 1:38 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Anker Hymes & Schreiber, Anker Hymes & Schreiber LLP, Business, Business Formation, Business Litigation, business transactions, CA, California, Douglas K. Schreiber, Estate Litigation, Estate planning, Larry S. Hymes, law firm, Los Angeles, oxnard street, real estate, Real Estate Litigation, Real Estate Transactions, trust litigation, Woodland Hills, woodland hills ca, woodland hills ca 91367

6 Tips on How to Handle the Responsibility and Potential Liability of Being a Trustee (Part 1) by Rob Cohen

Trusts are popular estate planning tools to ensure that families and assets are taken care of when someone passes away. Whether it’s providing for children, endowing charities, or managing real estate, those who create trusts have specific wishes that they expect to be followed, and they expect the trustee to carry out their plans.

But, being a trustee can be a thankless job, not to mention one that can thrust a person with good intentions into the cross hairs of litigation. Courts are filling to over-capacity with cases against trustees, and the matters can get quite complex.

If you are asked to be a trustee, first understand that someone held you in very high esteem and had confidence that you could oversee his or her legacy and assets. Second, be sure you know what being a trustee entails. It can get very complex, very fast.

With this in mind, here are a few tips that might help make your trustee-ship progress more smoothly.

1) Read the trust. Seems pretty basic, but you might be surprised at the level of detail and complexity contained within a trust. The trustee is obligated to administer the trust strictly by its terms. Not all trusts are the same; if possible, read the document with an attorney familiar with trust administration.

2) Keep track of your time. Some trusts are specific as to how much the trustee is to be paid (e.g., a fixed fee or percentage of the value of the assets). But some trusts, especially those drafted several years ago, may permit the trustee to receive “reasonable” compensation. What is reasonable? Ask 10 people and you’ll get 10 different answers. To avoid possible confusion or challenges, track your hours spent acting as trustee. If there is a dispute as to the trustee’s compensation, at least you’ll be able to demonstrate the actual time spent on trust matters.

3) Provide annual accountings. Every year, be sure to provide the beneficiaries with clear written accountings, which explain the income and expenses of the trust. Why is this important? First, it is required by statute. Second, once the accounting is served on the beneficiaries, the statute of limitations begins to run on claims challenging the accounting. If you don’t serve the accounting, the statute of limitations to file a challenge doesn’t start and you can be on the hook for a long time.

To continue reading: BEING A TRUSTEE IS A THANKLESS JOB: Six Tips on How to Handle the Responsibility and Potential Liability (Part 2)

For more information speak with our Trust Attorney in Los Angeles today.

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on June 10, 2011 at 6:40 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Asset, Estate planning, Law, Living trust, Los Angeles Attorney, real estate, Santa Clarita Attorney, trust law, Trustee, United States, Valencia Lawyer, Woodland Hills Lawyer

Death of a Resident in Your Mobilehome Community: What You Need to Know

It is often said that life is full of uncertainties, which rings particularly true in today’s world. Will the stock market rise or fall? Will real estate continue its downward trend? Will gas prices continue to skyrocket? When will Charlie Sheen suffer another “meltdown”?

On the other hand, you can find certainty in death and taxes. This article will give you an overview of which steps you, as owner or manager of a mobilehome community, should take upon the death of a homeowner in your community.

In a traditional landlord/tenant relationship, a month-to-month lease terminates upon the death of the tenant. In the mobilehome community, however, a resident’s death does not terminate the responsibility to pay the rent and utilities if the mobilehome remains on the space.

The Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL) provides limited rights to the decedent’s heirs, joint tenants or personal representative. Specifically, the MRL allows a homeowner’s heir, joint tenant or personal representative of the decedent’s estate, who gains ownership of a mobilehome in a mobilehome community as a result of the homeowner’s death, to sell the mobilehome in place in the community to an approved purchaser. This right, however, is conditioned on the heir, joint tenant or personal representative satisfying all of the deceased homeowner’s obligations under the lease. These obligations include satisfying the rent, utilities and maintenance obligations since the death of the homeowner and that continue to accrue until the date the mobilehome is sold. (Civil Code Section 798.78(a).)

One problem with this provision of the MRL that is of concern to you as a community owner, is that it assumes the person has a particular status (heir, joint tenant or personal representative). So, the question(s) for you as the community manager or owner are: