Trust Me - If You Own a House

If you are reading this blog, then you are really, really smart. You know that if/when you die, and you happen to own a house, the tax stuff (ramifications) will be humongous (substantial). And if/when you get half-way to dying, you will need someone to make medical decisions for you.

My wife and I have proof that we are aging. Even inCalifornia, aging has caused massive deaths.

We don't have a ton of money, but we have several tons of housing, and in California that means that we need to avoid probate. I don't know what probate is, exactly, but it seems close enough to "problem" and "probe" that I should stay hecka far away from it.

So we went to see Attorney Howard Neal. He wasn't able to reverse the "growing older every day" paradigm, but he did set up a "Probate Avoidance System," or a crust, or something like a truss or a thrust. I think it was a "trust."

We had had a simple chat with his assistant on the phone a few days before we visited his Montclair (Oakland, California) office. We told his assistant about my many, many children and vast real-estate holdings. When we arrived, all the documents to protect us were prepared and ready for us to sign.

(Seriously: ONE TRIP to the office. We didn't have to waste gas driving there twice! What a bargain!)

He must be one of the nicest guys you could meet. My wife, who fears lawyers in the abstract, and lawyers' offices in the concrete, liked the guy. So you know he's one of us Gentle and Nice guys (like my wife's husband).

After Neal explained what each document said and did, we signed in the correct places, in the correct way (bring your picture ID with you!). We are ready to die now! Or, rather: Now, we are ready to die, or to be very sick.

Update: In May, Howard commissioned me to do his portrait. It took less than half an hour in his office, and the proofs were online before we turned on the set to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that night.

You can check out the proofs at http://www.EKProof.com/howard.

You too, if you are in the mood for simplifying your possible demise, should make a will and trust appointment! Call Howard - he's in Montclair Village in Oakland, California: (510) 339-0233 or http://www.nealaw.com/. Like me and Montclair, he just has one "L." And he's one L of a lawyer, too! If you put in an extra L, you're just asking for trouble.


With Howard, estate planning is easier than falling off a log, and less painful - WAY less painful.

Here are a few more shots: