Miscellaneous Hearing PR

Cal. Super. - 2nd Dist.July 28, 2015

123 Judge SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, TENTATIVE RULINGS EVENT DATE: EVENT TIME: OXNARD DIVISION September 04, 2015 09/09/2015 09:00:00 AM DEPT.: J6 COUNTY OF VENTURA JUDICIAL OFFICER: Glen Reiser CASE NUM: CASE CATEGORY: EVENT TYPE: CASE TITLE: CASE TYPE:Probate Trust Proceedings 56-2015-00470192-PR-TR-OXN IN THE MATTER OF THE JACK AND PATRICIA FITZGERALD LIVING TRUST DATED JULY 20,1992, AS AMENDED Miscellaneous Hearing (PR) - Petition for Order Approving Modification of Trust under Probate Code 15409 CAUSAL DOCUMENT/DATE FILED: Petition - Other, 07/28/2015 stolo Jack and Patricia Fitzgerald signed a revocable family trust in 1992 in Placer County. An asset schedule to the trust was signed in 2001 in Nevada County. The couple amended the trust in 2007 in Santa Clara County, with Jack acting as Patricia's attorney-in-fact. In 2011, again in Santa Clara County, Jack resigned as "acting" trustee in favor of Patricia's daughter, Pamela. Patricia died in 2014; Jack is still alive and living in Sunnyvale. The successor trustee asks that the trust structure, creating a survivor's trust, an exemption trust and a successor's trust, be modified so that all trust assets pour into the survivor's (Jack's) trust. The stated justification for the proposed modification is that in 1992, when the federal estate tax exemption was $600,000, there was good reason to utilize this structure due to the likelihood of estate tax obligations. Since the current trust corpus does not rise to the level of the current $5.34 million estate tax exemption amount, and the ultimate trust beneficiaries are one and the same, there is no reason to continue the subtrusts. The difficulty with the argument, of course, is that the federal estate tax exemption did not continue at $600,000. The trust agreement was amended in 2001, 2007 and 2011, at the time the trust was revocable, subject to the following estate tax exemption matrix and associated tax rate: 2001 $675,000 55% 2002 $1 million 50% 2003 $1 million 49% 2004 $1.5 million 48% 2005 $1.5 million 47% 2006 $2 million 46% 2007 $2 million 45% 2008 $2 million 45% 2009 $3.5 million 45% 2011 $5 million 35% 2012 $5.12 million 35% 2013 $5.25 million 40% 2014 $5.34 million 40% 2015 $5.43 million 40% As of the 2011 amendment, certainly, the co-settlors could have and should have made this amendment without a court order, but did not do so. Discuss. gmr TENTATIVE RULINGS Page: 1