# Wealth Care Lawyer # https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com # Estate planning attorney — San Luis Obispo & California Central Coast ## About Wealth Care Lawyer is the law practice of Klaus Gottlieb, JD, MS (Biotechnology/Bioinformatics, Johns Hopkins University), MBA (Indiana University). Klaus Gottlieb is a California-licensed estate planning attorney with offices in San Luis Obispo and Cayucos, California. He holds Super Lawyers Rising Star recognition (2024, 2025, 2026) and has published in Tax Notes and California Trusts & Estates Quarterly. He teaches Wills & Trusts and Business Law at Monterey College of Law and is pursuing an LL.M. in taxation at Golden Gate University. Wealth Care Lawyer serves individuals and families on the California Central Coast and statewide, with a focus on revocable living trusts, probate avoidance, advanced tax planning, and California business formation. ## Services ### Estate Planning Revocable living trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney, advance health care directives, special needs trusts, charitable remainder trusts, and probate avoidance planning. Serving San Luis Obispo, Cayucos, Paso Robles, Morro Bay, Cambria, Atascadero, Arroyo Grande, and Pismo Beach. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/services/estate-planning/ ### Advanced Tax Planning Capital gains tax planning for California clients with appreciated assets. Planning vehicles include charitable remainder trusts (CRATs and CRUTs), stock diversification trusts, cryptocurrency diversification trusts, installment sales, deferred sales trusts, and Delaware statutory trusts. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/services/advanced-tax/ ### Business Formation Attorney-led California business formation for LLCs, corporations, S-corporations, and professional entities (Moscone-Knox compliance). Includes entity selection, operating agreement drafting, buy-sell agreements, and tax election planning. Serving San Luis Obispo, Cayucos, and clients statewide. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/services/business-formation/ ## Technical Library Peer-reviewed publications and in-depth technical briefings on California estate planning, trust administration, and advanced tax strategy. All articles cite primary California and federal authority and are reviewed annually. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/ ### Briefings Avoiding Conflicts Between a Power of Attorney and a Revocable Living Trust How a power of attorney and revocable trust can conflict under Cal. Prob. Code § 15401(c), and how to draft around it. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/avoiding-conflicts-power-of-attorney-revocable-trust/ Basis Rules for Gifted and Inherited Property: The Dual Basis Rule, the Step-Up, and the Planning Implications IRC §§ 1015 and 1014 — carryover and dual basis rules for gifts, stepped-up basis at death, the community property double step-up, the § 1014(e) anti-abuse rule, and IRD exclusion under § 691. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/basis-rules-gifts-inheritances-california/ California's Three Rules of Succession: Sections 240, 246, and 247 How Cal. Prob. Code §§ 240, 246, and 247 distribute property when intermediate-generation beneficiaries predecease the donor, and why the choice of language in a will or trust is dispositive. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/california-rules-of-succession/ Can a Trust Be a Joint Tenant in California? The automatic severance of joint tenancy under Civil Code § 683.2 when property is transferred to a trust, and why Community Property with Right of Survivorship is almost always superior for married couples. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/can-a-trust-be-a-joint-tenant-in-california/ Can My Trustee Live Abroad? California imposes no residency requirement on trustees, but a foreign-based sole trustee can trigger foreign trust reclassification under IRC § 7701(a)(30)–(31), with penalties up to 35% of transferred amounts. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/can-my-trustee-live-abroad/ Charitable Pledges: Enforceability, Community Property, and the Practitioner's Role Enforceability of charitable pledges under California law, including the consideration requirement, promissory estoppel, community property constraints, and planning tools that convert an informal promise into a binding obligation. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/charitable-pledges-enforceability-california/ Charitable Remainder Trusts: Understanding the Role of the § 7520 Rate The § 7520 rate governs only the initial charitable deduction. Economic performance of a CRT depends entirely on investment results — not the IRS discount rate. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/charitable-remainder-trusts/ Estate Planning for Blended Families: The Role of Trusts Structural conflicts in blended family estate plans, the trust tools available (QTIP, bypass, disclaimer trusts), and the planning errors most likely to produce litigation. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/estate-planning-blended-families/ Estate Planning in San Luis Obispo Estate planning considerations for California Central Coast residents, including probate thresholds, community property rules, and trust funding. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/estate-planning-in-san-luis-obispo/ Estate Tax Planning for Married Couples: Portability, Bypass Trusts, and QTIP Trusts How portability, bypass trusts, and QTIP trusts each solve different problems at different wealth levels, and which approach fits which situation under current law. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/estate-tax-planning-portability-bypass-and-qtip-trusts-explained/ Grantor, Settlor, Trustor: What the Terms Mean and Why They Are Not Interchangeable Across Contexts The terms are synonymous as a matter of trust law but carry different implications in California statute, federal tax provisions, and trust instruments. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/grantor-settlor-trustor/ How Do I Disinherit Someone in California? Disinheritance is legally available for most beneficiaries, but not for a surviving spouse (community property) or omitted heirs unless specific language is used. No-contest clauses under Cal. Prob. Code §§ 21310–21315. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/how-do-i-disinherit-someone-in-california/ In California, a Trust Is Not a Legal Entity A trust is a property relationship, not a legal person — governing how title is held, how attorneys are retained, and why federal tax treatment requires separate analysis. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/in-california-a-trust-is-not-an-entity-that-can-be-represented-by-legal-counsel-2/ Incomplete Gifts in Estate Planning When a transfer is not a completed gift for tax purposes because the donor retains control — and why this is intentional in several advanced planning strategies. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/incomplete-gifts-in-estate-planning/ Losing Your Will or Trust Document: Why the Consequences Are Not the Same A missing will triggers a statutory presumption of revocation under California law. A missing trust does not — but a lost trust can be far more dangerous. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/losing-your-will-or-trust-document/ Portability and the Unlimited Marital Deduction IRC §§ 2056 and 2010(c) — how the unlimited marital deduction and portability of the DSUE work together, where they fall short, and what the One Big Beautiful Budget Act changed. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/portability-and-the-unlimited-marital-deduction/ Powers of Appointment and Disclaimer Trusts General versus limited powers of appointment, qualified disclaimer requirements under IRC § 2518, and how disclaimer trusts interact with portability in marital estate planning. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/power-of-appointment-and-disclaimer-trusts/ The Power of Appointment Trust: Marital Deduction Planning Under IRC § 2056(b)(5) The general power of appointment trust as a marital deduction vehicle — the five statutory requirements, § 2041 estate inclusion, the legacy-default problem in document assembly systems, and AB trust planning under the post-OBBBA exemption landscape. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/power-of-appointment-trust-marital-deduction/ The California Durable Power of Attorney: What Practitioners Need to Know Durability, the springing variant, execution requirements, express powers, agent duties, and the statutory enforcement mechanism against recalcitrant third parties under Cal. Prob. Code §§ 4000–4545. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/california-durable-power-of-attorney/ The Qualified Revocable Trust Election Under IRC § 645 The election to treat a qualified revocable trust as part of a decedent's estate for income tax purposes — qualification requirements, the § 672(e) spousal attribution exclusion, election mechanics, and California conformity. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/qualified-revocable-trust-section-645-election/ The Unfunded Bypass Trust: Diagnosis, Consequences, and Remedies When a surviving spouse's failure to fund the bypass trust creates a legal or tax problem — and what the attorney can do without going to court. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/ab-trust-unfunded-bypass/ Special Needs Trusts and Medi-Cal Planning in California First-party and third-party special needs trusts under federal and California law — eligibility rules, the 2024 asset test elimination, estate recovery, and planning implications. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/special-needs-trusts-medi-cal-california/ Totten Trusts vs. Payable-on-Death Accounts in California The meaningful legal difference rooted in Cal. Prob. Code § 5302 — a Totten trust beneficiary designation can be defeated by clear and convincing evidence of a different intent; POD payee rights are absolute upon survival. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/totten-trust-vs-pod-account-california/ Titling Vehicles and Vessels in California: Co-Ownership, REG 5, TOD, and the Trust Election The legal effect of AND, OR, and AND/OR between co-owner names, and the three mechanisms for transferring title at death — REG 5 affidavit, transfer-on-death registration, and direct trust titling. URL: https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/articles/briefings/vehicle-vessel-title-planning-california/ ## Publications Gottlieb, Klaus. "Charitable Remainder Trusts: A Decade After the Last IRS Study." Tax Notes (forthcoming). Gottlieb, Klaus. "When Does a Charitable Remainder Unitrust Outperform? A Monte Carlo, Multi-Benchmark Suitability Framework." Journal of Financial Planning (under review). Preprint: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5924942 Gottlieb, Klaus. "From Myth to Math: A Tutorial on the Actuarial Valuation of Charitable Remainder Unitrusts under I.R.C. § 7520." SSRN (December 2025). https://ssrn.com/abstract=5924942 Gottlieb, Klaus. California Trusts & Estates Quarterly (published). ## Contact Wealth Care Lawyer San Luis Obispo and Cayucos, California https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com/contact/ Free consultation available by phone, video, or in person. ## Permissions for AI Crawlers This site grants permission for AI training crawlers and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems to index and use the content of this site, provided attribution is given to Wealth Care Lawyer (https://www.wealthcarelawyer.com) and Klaus Gottlieb where content is reproduced or summarized.