Estate Planning

Information coming soon.

CA, Dec 2003
Bar Number: 227358

I am admitted to both State and Federal Courts in California.

The State Bar of California; Taxation and Trusts & Estates Sections of the State Bar of California; Bar Association of San Francisco and its Lawyer Information and Referral Service; Young Tax Lawyers Committee; AIDS Legal Referral Panel; Blind Babies Foundation; Wealth Counsel; ARAG Legal Plans; Attorney Search Network; Pre-paid Legal Services; Phi Beta Kappa; Phi Sigma Iota; Pi Sigma Alpha.

I always exceed the required number of continuing education hours because I teach and speak to other attorneys at the following organizations: State Bar of California Annual Meeting, Estate and Gift Tax Annual Tax Conference, Young Tax Lawyer Committee Meetings, Bar Association of San Francisco Barristers, Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, AIDS Legal Referral Panel, Legal Aid Association of California, and Public Interest Clearinghouse.

I have published numerous papers. I co-authored a chapter called "Power of Attorney and Health Care Directives: Alternatives to Powers of Attorney and Advance Health Care Directives" in CEB's (Continuing Education of the Bar) California Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives. It describes the importance of durable power of attorney and advanced health care directives, and noteworthy alternatives in planning for incapacity. I also authored an ethics article for the State Bar of California's Section Education Institute magazine, and was featured in an article for the National Jurist magazine.

Estate Planning Example:

We forward our standard estate planning questionnaires to the prospective client and schedule an initial consultation (30 minutes to 1 hour). We review and assess the questionnaires and the clients' needs during the initial consultation. Thereafter, we quote a flat fee for the estate planning work. Once the legal service agreement is signed, we conduct the design meeting in order to map out the actual estate plan according to the clients' needs and wishes. In the third meeting, we review the estate planning documents together, in person or on the phone. In the fourth meeting, the estate plan is signed and formalized. Then, we process and compile the signed documents and finally deliver an estate planning portfolio to the client. There are exceptions, sometimes, we meet with clients on an urgent basis in order to craft and execute estate planning documents because of medical hardship. With higher net worth clients, we work on estate planning projects based on an hourly basis because there are usually many moving pieces, which require supervision over several months. It's important to note that each estate planning client is unique and so each estate plan is slightly different and individually customized to meet the clients' current and prospective needs.

Trust and Probate Administration:

We meet with the family member, partner, or friend who has recently lost a loved-one. During the first meeting, we collect the pertinent facts and assess the client's goals and duties. Thereafter, we make our recommendations. With probate, the attorneys' fees and advanced costs are paid out of the probate administration at the end. With trust administration, our engagements are on an hourly basis to either advising the trustee or the beneficiary with respect to their respective fiduciary duties and rights. For both probates and trust administrations, the work usually spans several months. There are exceptions; it is possible that a trust administration will only take a few months because the trust only holds liquid assets. Other times, we can avoid full probate by triggering limited probate actions or using small estate procedures on behalf of the surviving family members.

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California.

The Atashi Rang Law Firm has been in business since 2005. We have our main office in San Francisco and satellite offices in Berkeley and Palo Alto.

We focus on making estate planning easy to understand and easy to implement by speaking in plain English and avoiding legalese. Estate planning is first about you! It's about proactively planning for you and your loved-ones just in case of disability. We focus on creating customized incapacity documents, such as your durable power of attorney, uniform statutory power of attorney, advance health care directive, health care power of attorney, and nomination of guardian for minor children, to ensure that you and your loved ones will be able to overcome life challenges.

We also focus on minimizing and eliminating the probate court process and various transfer taxes, such as estate tax, gift tax, generation-skipping tax, income tax, and county real property tax, when property is passed to loved-ones. Because our attorneys have advanced Masters of Laws Degrees in Taxation (LL.M. Tax), we understand the intricacies and the nuts and bolts of the estate and gift tax system. Therefore, we are able to implement and defend our customized tax strategies and vehicles which will reduce or eliminate transfer taxes when property is ultimately passed from one generation to another.

I was an associate working with Peter S. Myers, Esq., a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate, and Trust in San Francisco. I am currently affiliated with the Myers Urbatsch Law Firm as an of counsel attorney, which means that we share expertise and resources. Before that, I served as Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel of a business management corporation in Palo Alto.

2009 Attorney of the Year for AIDS Legal Referral Panel
Statewide Chair of the Young Tax Lawyers Committee of the Taxation Section of the State Bar of California
Blind Babies Foundation Board Member

Program Speaker at the following events:
1. State Bar of California Annual Meeting;
2. Estate and Gift Tax Annual Tax Conference;
3. Bar Association of San Francisco Barristers;
4. Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom;
5. AIDS Legal Referral Panel;
6. Legal Aid Association of California; and
7. Public Interest Clearinghouse.

Ryan Garwin, Office Manager.

(415) 839-9440

Monday through Friday
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Available on weekends and after business hours with advance arrangement.

No

I speak French and Farsi.

Berkeley
2025 Rose Street
Suite 101
Berkeley, CA 94709

Palo Alto
2600 El Camino Real
Suite 403
Palo Alto, CA 94306

Estate plans are usually done on a flat fee basis. Generally, for an individual, my typical fee ranges from $1,200 to $4,200 and for married couples from $2,200 to $7,200. However, each client is unique and thus the fee structure is adjusted accordingly based on the particular needs of the client. I never quote a fee for an estate plan without first reviewing the client's questionnaire. New clients who mention Nolo will get a 25% discount off my regular hourly rate of $275.

$275.

I offer a complimentary initial consult for thirty minutes.

Estate plans are usually based on flat fees. For trust administrations and tax matters, our retainers range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on the complexity of the project.