Hartog Baer Zabronsky

Managing Partner: John A. Hartog

Number of Partners: 3

Number of Attorneys: 10

Languages: English, Spanish

Hartog, Baer, Zabronsky is committed to being one of California’s best full-service trust and estate law firm. We strive to find practical solutions to protect the legacies of our individual clients and their families, and to advance the interests of our institutional and private fiduciary clients.

Our experience, skill, and accountability instill confidence in our clients. Our work sets the standard for excellence and professionalism in a caring trust and estate practice. HBZ cultivates exceptional attorneys and staff, all dedicated to forging close relationships, providing superior client service, maintaining a respectful workplace, and meeting the highest ethical standards.

Since 1991, the attorneys of Hartog, Baer, Zabronsky have been representing individuals, families, business owners, investors, nonprofit entities, trustees, and beneficiaries with the highest commitment to quality and compassionate representation. For nearly three decades, we have placed our commitment to our clients and our professional responsibility before all else.

Estate & Tax Planning

Partners Involved: John A. Hartog

Number of Attorneys: 6

An “estate plan” is an arrangement for the conservation, investment, use, management, and transfer of a person’s property, both during the person’s lifetime and after the person’s death. The process by which a person’s property is arranged so as to gain the maximum benefits of pertinent laws while carrying out the person’s wishes for transfer of the property to others is called “estate planning.” Estate planning involves the creation, preservation and distribution of family wealth. Estate planning is concerned with the cost of accumulating wealth, proper asset management during life and after death, as well as the transfer of wealth between older and younger generations. The overlap of income and transfer tax issues requires the estate planner to be familiar with personal, corporate and partnership income taxation, gift and death taxation, charitable planning and taxation reporting requirements. A “good” estate plan will combine different characteristics. It will always take into account the tax consequences of particular estate planning choices, though it will never be dominated by those consequences. It will seek to combine sound investment techniques with sound legal planning. It will keep the client’s personal needs and desires in mind, balancing them with the client’s wishes with respect to family members, friends, charitable beneficiaries, and others. It will recognize opportunities for transferring part of the client’s property to other persons or entities while the client is living and seek to accomplish these transfers in the most efficient and economical method possible, consistent with respect for the client’s personal needs, investment considerations, and tax savings opportunities. It will plan for the ultimate disposition of the client’s property after the client’s death in a way that will ensure that the client’s wishes are respected and that the objects of the client’s bounty will receive the maximum benefits from the property.

Trust & Estate Litigation

Partners Involved: David W. Baer, Jamie B. Herren

Number of Attorneys: 5

Probate and trust litigation is fostered by the elemental human forces of death, greed, familial animus as old as the Bible, and the success of medical technology in prolonging life beyond the patience of heirs. Disputes regarding the validity of the will or trust, the capacity of the testator, or any other disagreement in the management of a decedent’s estate can lead to probate or trust litigation. A will is intended to reflect the intentions of the decedent, but these intentions may be unclear at times. A trustee must follow the terms of the trust, but trustees sometimes act inappropriately. Disagreements may arise as to how and when funds are to be disbursed or enjoyed. Trust litigation can also arise when trust funds are mismanaged.

Litigation involving trust and estate matters often involves an emotional element not present in most other legal disputes and often involve the element of vindication for a perceived wrong that occurred during the decedent’s lifetime. Money sometimes can serve as a consolation in these disputes, but rarely is satisfactory. Litigation over wills and trusts and elder abuse is complicated by the jurisdictional complex of probate remedies and rules, the options of probate and civil jurisdiction, and the minefields sown by the taxing authorities, restrictive deadlines, and ethical prohibitions.

Estate & Tax Planning, Trust & Estate Litigation, Probate & Trust Administration, Neutrals & Experts.

United States, Orinda, CA: 4 Orinda Way, Suite 200D, 94563

Tel: 925-253-1717

Fax: 925-253-0334

Email: [email protected]