Call us today for a consultation! 949.492.3350 Practice Areas About Our News Contact Holiday Hours & Exciting Changes in 2021 David L. Gibbs • Dec 21, 2020 Wishing You and Yours Happy Holidays! Holiday Schedule Like each of you, our lives - personal and professional - were fundamentally changed this past year due to the pandemic. As we close in on the end of the year, it's time to reflect upon those memories we can celebrate, enjoy close family in a safe manner, and to look forward to a new year in which we'll hopefully return to something approaching normal. As most of you know, we're still unable to meet with clients in-person in our office with the sole exception of estate plan signings due to State restrictions. The good news, however, is that we're even more available than we've ever been thanks to video, telephone consultations and working from home. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you need anything from us. With that said, as we have done for the past many years our office will close on December 23, 2020 at 4:30 PM and will reopen on January 4, 2021 at 8:00 AM. For the coming year, our office schedule will mirror that of the Courts. At the bottom of this email is our holiday schedule for 2021.* * UPDATE - Monday, December 21, 2020, 3:53 PM - Unfortunately, due to unprecedented increase in COVID-19 cases in Orange County, the lack of available hospital facilities, and other factors we've determined it is in our clients' and our best interest to physically close our office at the end of the day today, December 21, 2020 and return as scheduled above on January 4, 2021. We will continue working and our phones will be answered between now and December 23, 2020, and we can be reached by email but nobody will physically be in our offices through January 3, 2021.* New in 2021 - Yourefolio This coming year, we'll be rolling out a new service for our existing and new estate planning clients. The service - Yourefolio.com - will provide a number of tools related to the ongoing management of your estate plan. These include flowcharts explaining how your estate plan works, estate analysis, an inventory of assets and a secure repository for your estate planning documents. For existing clients who've signed an estate plan, we'll begin rolling this out to you mid-to-late-January. For clients who have not yet signed a new estate plan, we'll be adding this to your estate planning process beginning early January. We think this will become a great tool for ongoing management and maintenance of your estate plan and planning needs. Also New in 2021 - Proposition 19 One of the biggest changes for us as estate planners heading into a new year will be the implementation of some significant property tax changes in 2021. The California property tax "Parent-to-Child" exclusion from reassessment has been overhauled by what many call the most complex ballot initiative in recent history, and unfortunately for some this means making a pretty significant decision between now and the implementation date of February 16, 2021. Property transferred before February 16, 2021, from Parent to Child may still be eligible for the existing exclusion; however, after the implementation date only very limited transactions will be able to take advantage of the exclusion. In its simplest form, the question in light of this change in the law is whether to gift real estate now to preserve the property tax reassessment exclusion, or wait and transfer it to your children via your estate plan after you've passed. If your children intend to retain the property long-term, it may be best to gift it now and avoid an increase in property taxes. If, however, they intend to sell the assets, you'll want to wait and let them inherit the property. While they lose the property tax exclusion, they get the benefit of a step-up in basis for capital gains tax treatment. The impact of the change in law is less of a legal issue and more a financial/tax issue. I recommend that clients speak with their tax advisers about the change, and if appropriate ask that they prepare an analysis of gifting now versus bequeathing by inheritance after your spouse and you have passed. While we'll provide some further guidance on the issue, it's one that that really does require a CPA or Tax Attorney's formal opinion before taking any measures to mitigate the change in law. Happy Holidays! Carol, Mary, Jerry and I wish you the absolute best this Holiday season, and hope that in spite of the challenges we face, you'll be able to enjoy your immediate family and take some time to recover from a challenging year. The Gibbs Law Firm, APC 2021 Holiday Schedule Martin Luther King Day - Monday, January 28, 2021 President's Day - Monday, February 15, 2021 Cesar Chavez Day - Wednesday, March 31, 2021 Memorial Day - Monday, May 31, 2021 Independence Day - Friday, July 2, 2021 Labor Day - Monday, September 6, 2021 Columbus Day - Monday, October 11, 2021 Veteran's Day - Thursday, November 11, 2021 Thanksgiving - Close at Noon, Wednesday November 24, 2021, Reopen Monday, November 29, 2021 Year-End Holiday Schedule - Close Friday, December 24, 2021, Reopen Monday, January 3, 2022 Kind regards, The Gibbs Law Firm, APC Newer Post > < Older Post Share Tweet Share Mail How Your Stage in Life Impacts Your Estate Planning By David Gibbs • 06 Jan, 2021 • When Is It Time to Declare Bankruptcy? By David Gibbs • 22 Dec, 2020 • Credit Card Debt & Chapter 7 in California By David Gibbs • 18 Dec, 2020 • Is My Will Valid in California? By David Gibbs • 08 Dec, 2020 • What Can’t Be Accomplished in California Bankruptcy? By David Gibbs • 02 Dec, 2020 • Don't Skip This Important Step for Your Living Trust By David Gibbs • 02 Dec, 2020 • Update To Our COVID-19 Response | 03/17/2020 17 Mar, 2020 • Our Response to COVID-19 | 03/12/2020 12 Mar, 2020 • Pay Attention To The Small Details When Dealing With Long Term Care Insurer By The Gibbs Law Firm • 08 Oct, 2019 • A long-term care insurance company recently cancelled the insurance coverage of an elderly woman who accidentally wrote the wrong amount on her premium check. The case illustrates the need for policyholders to pay attention to the details. Madeleine Maldonado, of Concord, Massachusetts, had a long-term care insurance policy through AIG. According to an article in the Boston Globe, when Ms. Maldonado wrote a check to pay her $3,399.91 long-term care insurance premium, she put down the correct amount in the number box, but she accidently wrote out “three thousand three hundred and 99/100 dollars.” Under banking and finance rules, if a check has contradictory terms, the words are considered the correct amount. Therefore, Ms. Maldonado's premium payment was $98.92 short. AIG sent the 81-year-old Maldonado a past-due invoice for the amount she owed, and when Ms. Maldonado did not respond, they cancelled her policy. Ms. Maldonado's daughter appealed to the company to accept a late payment, but the company refused. Her mother now has dementia and no long-term care coverage. This incident illustrates the need to be extra careful when dealing with long-term care insurance companies. You need to make sure all your I's are dotted and your T's are crossed because small mistakes can lead to huge problems. It is also important not to ignore letters or notifications for payment from the insurance company. For more information about Ms. Maldonado's coverage loss, click here . For more information about long-term care insurance, click here . Foreclosure & Bankruptcy - What You Didn't Know By David L. Gibbs • 01 Oct, 2019 • With all of the bad news these days, I thought should look at some of the more positive little-known tips and tricks if you are negotiating the difficult waters of foreclosure and/or bankruptcy. Did You Know . . . That virtually every lender in the United States must give you a HUD Counseling Notice within 45 days after a missed mortgage payment? [click here for a copy of the FDIC compliance handbook with applicable sections] Although the law does not contain any consequences for failing to give the notice, at least one court in Florida has stopped a foreclosure on this basis. To date, I am not aware of any California Courts preventing foreclosures as a result of this, however, this morning in Court I had an interesting conversation with another attorney. He was seeking an ex-parte Temporary Restraining Order stopping a foreclosure sale on a client’s home. The basis was alleged defects in the loan documentation, and the judge issued the TRO without any argument or discussion. Now, this was a very preliminary restraining order, it was unopposed by the foreclosing lender, and it may be lifted when the attorney returns for an Order to Show Cause why the Preliminary Injunction should be issued; but hey, its a start! In that particular instance, an Orange County Superior Court Judge was moved to stop a foreclosure sale (literally, scheduled for 9:00 am this morning — the attorney had to run downstairs to serve the TRO on the foreclosure Trustee!) based upon a technical defect in the loan. My personal opinion is that everyone has grown so tired of banks and mortgage lenders that the sympathies are shifting in favor of homeowners in trouble. That both TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program — yes, the one that handed lenders literally hundreds of billions of dollars) and HAMP (the making Home Affordable Mortgage Program “President Obama” plan to stem the tide of foreclosures) require that a lender who received TARP money, must stop a foreclosure while the borrower has a loan modification application “under consideration.” Some lenders have worked around this by not considering your application as being “under consideration” until it is assigned to a negotiator, but recent pressure from the Executive Branch may push lenders to stop more foreclosures while alternatives are explored. For a great article on this, check here at the Mortgage Law Network’s site. That although the much-hailed “California Foreclosure Prevention Act” was supposed to add 90 days to a foreclosure to allow homeowners more time to explore solutions with their lenders; it became almost immediately ineffective as a result of the Departments of Real Estate, Financial Institutions and Corporations giving the servicers who do 90%+ of all foreclosures an exemption from the law. I have previously written about this lovely bit of legislation here. That being said, most small or private lenders do not have this exemption, and must still add 90 days to their foreclosure. That in certain circumstances, a wholly-unsecured second mortgage on your home may be stripped from the home in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy; and that under certain circumstances in a bankruptcy, the debtor can buy his or her car out from under a loan that exceeds the value of the car. That if you are owed money, and your borrower files bankruptcy, you do not have to give up any hope of collecting. In many cases, debts can be exempted from a discharge, and/or the debtor’s discharge of his debts can be challenged if the case is defective, deficient or abusive. That a tenant in a home that has been foreclosed, must now be given 90 days notice by the bank to leave — a new Federal law changed this and many lenders have yet to change their practices to comply. SB 896 — an extremely long and complex piece of legislation included the ”Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act” which provides for 90 days notice to tenants after a foreclosure before they may be evicted. As I have previously written, most attorneys for lenders in California appears to be ignoring this new law entirely — I have seen now more than ten examples of lenders giving 60 days notice under California Code of Civil Procedure 1161a, instead of the 90 day notice now required. There there exist any number of myths surrounding loan modifications. A great article written by Stephanie Devery, a New York Real Estate Attorney covers these. The myths are: (1) that you have to be late on your mortgage to obtain relief; (2) that you need to hire a loan modification attorney or company; (3) that the loan modification process is quick; (4) that everyone will qualify for a loan modification; and (5) that you have no options if you don’t qualify under the HAMP or MHA (Making Homes Affordable) modification programs. Check out Ms. Devery’s article here for the answers to these five myths. The point is this — debt, mortgages and bankruptcy have become increasingly complex with the myriad of knee-jerk legislation attempting to reign in our economy. Whether you are an individual in financial trouble, or someone who is owed money, you should feel free to call our offices for advice as to how to proceed. In this complex and rapidly changing environment, you don’t want your rights adversely affected by failure to obtain experienced, knowledgeable counsel. More Posts For more information regarding how The Gibbs Law Firm may assist you, please contact us today. CONTACT US Practice Areas Estate Planning Real Estate Bankruptcy Business Law Contact info (949) 492-3350 903 Calle Amanecer, Suite 215 San Clemente, CA 92673 Privacy Policy | Electronic Communications © 2021 All Rights Reserved | The Gibbs Law Firm | Website Design by GoBeRewarded