(UCH) WILLS & TRUSTS SP2017

W RITING A SSIGNMENT N O . 2
Our clients, Gianna and Mario Bari, are a married couple who reside in California. They have
only ever resided in California since their wedding. They have two children, both of them
are minors at this time. They have retained us to assist with their estate plans.
Gianna and Mario own the following interests in property (the manner in which they hold the
property is also described):
The couple own their home and hold legal title to it as Joint Tenants with Right of
Survivorship (JTWROS);
Each of them holds title to a separate checking account that s/he holds in her/his name
alone, without any pay on death (POD) designation;
Gianna and Mario maintain a joint checking account that they hold in their names as
Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship (JTWROS);
Each of them owns a car and holds legal title to the car in his/her name alone;
Gianna owns a vacation home (she holds legal title in her name alone) in the Catskill
Mountains of New York, which home she inherited from her parents.
Each of them owns a life insurance policy (that insures the life of the owner). The
beneficiary designation of each policy designates the other of them as the primary
beneficiary, and his/her estate as the contingent (or secondary) beneficiary;
Mario has a brokerage account with Charles Schwab that he holds in his name alone, and
he has designated Gianna as the transfer on death (TOD) beneficiary; and
Gianna owns an IRA and a 401(k) in her name. She has designated Mario as the primary
beneficiary and their children as equal contingent (or secondary) beneficiaries. Neither
of the children is an adultthey are only 5 and 7 years old, respectively.
We have drafted a document that will govern The Bari Family 2017 Trust, which is a jointly
established Revocable Living Trust (RLT) by Gianna and Mario for their lifetime benefit and
the benefit of their children (i.e., Gianna and Mario are the Settlors of the RLT and they are
also the Initial Trustees of their RLT).
I have explained to them that it is critical that they fund the RLT with as much of their
property as is prudent. Thus, they need our advice about which items of property to transfer
into the RLT (and, if there is some property that should not be transferred into the RLT, why
not?). They also need to know how to transfer property into their RLT and exactly how to
take legal title to such property (once it is in the Trust).
Your Assignment:
Write a letter (of 13 pages) advising our clients on this matter. Do not just say this is
what you should do, and leave it at thatbe sure to explain the reasons for your
particular recommendations. You should know by now that several of the items of property

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that the clients hold will avoid probate upon the owners death since we have discussed this
in class. But if the beneficiary or beneficiaries of several items of property are the same, is
the current manner by which they hold such property optimal? Or, is there a better, more
convenient method by which they could (or should) hold their property?
Generally, if the beneficiaries of different assets are the same, it is always better to create
a more streamlined estate plan that manages and passes assets at the death of each of the
spouses as a group, subject to one set of instructions contained in as few documents as
possible rather than stand by an estate plan that consists of items of property that pass to
beneficiaries in accordance with the specific manner in which that particular item is held or
owned (i.e., property that passes asset by asset). Such a manner of holding property,
especially if the number of items of property is large, can be cumbersome and confusing to
the client, especially when s/he decides to change her beneficiaries (i.e., she would have to
change the beneficiary on each asset, rather than changing the beneficiary once, in a
document that controls the disposition of multiple assets (i.e., via a RLT).
Moreover, in your letter, explain how they accomplish the task of changing the legal title to
items of property from the current title into their names as Trustees of their RLT. Also, do
not make statements you do not understandthe client may ask you to explain the reasons
for your advice and you do not want to sound ill-informed. (Be especially careful about the
retirement plan as there are some unique tax issues that you should research.)
To get started, see http://issues.flemingandcurti.com/2015/12/27/creating-your-trust-
dealing-with-specific-assets/, and http://issues.flemingandcurti.com/2016/03/06/your-
trust-and-ownership-of-real-property/. You will probably need to refer to other resources
and, to the extent you do, please identify them. Also, I am providing you with this
assignment early so that when we cover the chapters on Trusts and other probate-avoidance
assets, youll have this assignment in mind so that you can ask pertinent questions.
Try to keep your letter to no more than 2,000 words.
If you are working with a partner or partners on this writing assignment (which I expect
most, if not all, of you will be doing), CLEARLY indicate the names of all partners on the first
page of your assignment. Again, if you do not have a partner and wish to join another group
of partners, let me know as soon as possible. I will try to find someone (or an existing group)
with whom you can work.
This writing assignment is due no later than 5:00 PM on Tuesday, April 18, 2017. Email
your completed assignment to me as a PDF file attached to an email message to both my
UC Berkeley email address (jcreighton@berkeley.edu) and my firm email address
(james@creightonlaw.com) Be sure to enter the following information in the subject line of
the email message (substitute the names of you and your partners as indicated in the
example):
Subject: Estates & Trusts: Writing Asgmt #2; Creighton, James; Baldanzi, Frank

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