How to Find the Best Pasadena Estate Planning Attorneys

Are you looking for a local Estate Attorney in the Pasadena area to help create your Estate Plan or administer a trust?

I hope you’ll consider our Pasadena Estate Planning office, which serves clients throughout the San Gabriel Valley, including South Pasadena, East Pasadena, Altadena, San Marino, La Canada, Flintridge, and Glendale.

Here you can access CunninghamLegal’s complete set of California Legal Services, including:

• California Estate Planning
• Trust Administration
• Asset Protection
• Probate Law
• Elder Law
• Business Law

…and much more.

It’s not easy choosing a Living Trust attorney—or at least, it shouldn’t be, for best results.

If you want to leave your wealth to children and loved ones after you die, don’t risk probate by leaving your estate up to a generalist or an online trust service. Search for the best Pasadena estate planning attorney so your heirs and beneficiaries don’t have to experience the burden of probate. Planning for probate and related litigation is a part of the services we offer, but we’d rather plan ahead to avoid the hassle and pain for everyone.

When you hire a CunninghamLegal living trust lawyer in Pasadena, they’ll create a trust in consultation with you. A local Pasadena estate planning attorney can provide invaluable help. If you have a sizable and complicated estate, or if you just want to make sure your trustee is acting in your best interests, hiring a professional who can offer assistance with living trust and asset protection in Pasadena is the best option.

You Really Do Need a Specialist

Estate planning is a dynamic, ever-changing field that demands focused expertise. Often, lawyers handle estate plans as a small sideline to their practice, and just don’t have the time to keep up with ever-shifting California inheritance or “Death Tax” laws, and even less with federal inheritance tax law shifts.

Inheritance law changes frequently and dramatically, on everything from trusts to taxes to IRAs. Not too long ago, we experienced the upheaval of both the U.S. SECURE Act and CA Prop 19, which should both trigger a re-think of everyone’s estate plan.

That’s why every Pasadena estate planning attorney in our practice spends serious time each month on professional development—attending seminars when they aren’t giving seminars, to stay ahead of the curve.

You won’t find the right estate lawyer or the best probate attorney Pasadena has to offer simply by searching “living trust attorney near me.” And please, don’t rely on some online trust mill. A Living Trust is way too important for a robot, and every trust requires personal customization, no matter how simple you may imagine your situation to be. A Pasadena trust attorney can provide that customization for yourself and your loved ones.

Local Matters, Too

Being local often matters more than you might think with an estate attorney, trust attorney, or probate law firm in Pasadena. That’s because the estate planning lawyer should be familiar with the laws and regulations in the region, especially Los Angeles County. They need to have experience helping clients with trust and probate cases for a long time in one area to know how the system works.

Estate Planning is a personal relationship. And even as the world moves to attorney videoconferencing with Zoom and the like, you’ll likely want someone with a local office for signings and paperwork.

Just as importantly, only a full-time San Gabriel Valley and Pasadena living trust attorney will maintain the right estate-related contacts with local accountants and financial planners—they can and should work together for you.

Living Up to the Practices We Inherited

Estate Planning creates a solemn, vital agreement which must move from generation to generation. At CunninghamLegal, we accept that charge with the utmost responsibility.

When he retired in 2017, attorney Stephen Bezaire honored us by entrusting his longstanding Pasadena estate planning practice to CunninghamLegal. The Law Office of Stephen Bezaire was known for the care and respect he showed to clients, and we are proud to continue his tradition—even as he now enjoys his well-deserved retirement in Washington State.

Stephen’s wonderful staff of three stayed on with CunninghamLegal after the transition, and they continued to provide the best legal advice for clients. We were also entrusted with Stephen Bezaire’s 5,000+ client files—all in safekeeping.

Every trust requires personal customization, no matter how simple you may imagine your situation to be.

For local estate planning attorneys who have been handling living trusts for a long time and have a process in place to give you peace of mind about your family’s financial future and estate administration, contact CunninhamLegal’s Pasadena office.

Helms & Myers Passes Us the Torch

In October 2019, CunninghamLegal also inherited the Arcadia, California, law firm of Helms & Myers, a highly-respected practice with clients throughout the San Gabriel Valley.

Attorney James Helms, known as Jim Helms to his friends and clients, practiced in Arcadia since the early 1950s. He was even mayor of Arcadia in the 1970s. Sterling Myers practiced family law since 1972.

We transitioned Helms & Myers’ nearly 10,000 clients and former clients to our office, and we help them to this day—maintaining the high standards set by Mr. Helms and Mr. Myers for the very best in client service. We are committed to being the trust and estate planning attorneys Pasadena residents can rely upon.

The Pasadena office also serves the former CunninghamLegal clients of Pasadena Estate Attorney Liz Seitz.

What Do We Do?

The Pasadena living trust attorneys and staff at CunninghamLegal help people plan for some of the most difficult times in their lives; then we guide them when those times come.

Our office has represented families of all types, large and small businesses, celebrities, professionals, and people at every level of income and complexity of assets. Many of our clients work with us right after they’ve gone through the loss of a loved one—a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a partner, a grandparent. We help to provide stability during such times, with the goal of guiding and protecting every client.

We always approach our work with ethics, knowledge, care, and caring.

Make sure your Living Will and Estate Plan are up-to-date with your current family situation and the latest laws. Make sure you protect yourself as a trustee.

We look forward to working with you!

Make an appointment to meet with CunninghamLegal Pasadena for Estate Planning and Trust Administration. We offer in-person, phone, and Zoom appointments. Just call (626) 585-6970, or book an appointment online.

Best, Jim
James L. Cunningham Jr., Esq.
Founder, CunninghamLegal

At CunninghamLegal, we guide savvy, caring families in the protection and transfer of multi-generational wealth.