Estate planning isn’t about preparing for the worst. It’s about making sure the wealth, property, and business interests you’ve spent a career building end up exactly where you intend, without unnecessary taxes, court involvement, or family conflict. We build comprehensive plans for individuals and families with meaningful assets to protect.
At its core, an estate plan answers three questions: who receives your assets, when they receive them, and who’s in charge if you can’t be. A basic will only begins to answer those questions, and it guarantees your family will go through probate. A properly structured trust-based plan answers all three, keeps your affairs out of court and out of the public record, and can protect what you leave behind from creditors, lawsuits, and poor decisions by beneficiaries.
Every plan starts with the same foundation, then layers in the provisions your specific situation calls for.
The foundation of most estate plans. Controls how your assets are managed during your lifetime, in the event of incapacity, and after your death, all without probate.
Even trust-based plans need a will as a backstop, to name guardians for minor children and catch any assets left outside the trust.
Name who can make financial and medical decisions on your behalf if you’re unable to, decided in advance, not resolved in court during a crisis.
For clients with more complex estates, closely held businesses, multiple properties, blended families, or significant liquid wealth, we also build advanced structures: irrevocable trusts for tax and asset protection planning, spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs), and business succession provisions integrated directly into your estate plan. If your situation calls for planning beyond the basics, that’s identified in your initial consultation.
Tom has done his own family’s estate planning. He and his wife have been married since 2009 and are raising three kids, and that firsthand experience shapes how he counsels clients: how to protect and grow assets for a young family, how to build in the right incentives as children get older, and how to protect kids from themselves and from the world around them, not just from taxes and probate.
Tom brings something most estate planning attorneys don’t have: real, on-the-ground experience in behavioral healthcare. Through his treatment centers, based in Southern California with telehealth services available throughout the state, Tom and his team have worked alongside psychiatrists, addiction specialists, therapists, and interventionists, and have supported thousands of individuals and families navigating addiction and mental health treatment
That experience directly informs how we plan for families facing these issues. Rather than a standard lump-sum inheritance, we build in the right protections, incentives, and oversight: staggered distributions, trustee guidance, and structures designed to support a loved one without enabling them. If addiction or mental health is part of your family’s story, this is a conversation Tom is uniquely equipped to have with you.
Business ownership isn’t the deciding factor. Asset value, property in multiple states, privacy concerns, and a desire to avoid probate all point toward a trust regardless of whether you own a business.
A will takes effect only after death and must go through probate. A trust can manage your assets during incapacity, avoids probate entirely, and keeps your affairs private.
Cost depends on the complexity of your assets and goals. You’ll receive an all-inclusive flat-fee quote after your consultation, before any work begins.
Your trust still works just fine, and it can hold out-of-state assets. Depending on your new state of residency, and whether it’s a community property or separate property state, you may need to amend or restate your trust. If you do move, it’s a good idea to work with an attorney in your new state to make sure your documents are updated if necessary.
As a general rule, review your plan after any major life event: marriage, divorce, a new child or grandchild, a significant change in assets, and at minimum every few years even without one.
Yes, and it’s an area where Tom’s background is unusually deep. Through his healthcare companies, he’s worked directly with clinicians and treatment professionals, and he builds that understanding into how he structures estate plans for these families.
