ESTATE PLANNING
Deborah’s estate planning practice is focused on the preparation of Revocable Trusts, Wills, Durable Powers of Attorney, Advance Health Care Directives, and the various documents needed to transfer assets into her clients’ Trusts.
Deborah has worked with a wide variety of clients with unique and diverse needs, providing sound advice and excellent guidance through all stages of the estate planning process and administration proceedings.
Deborah is well-known for providing creative solutions to difficult problems, and for her sensitivity and genuine concern for the well-being of her clients.
Deborah was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1993 and began her practice at Jackson, Tufts, Cole & Black in San Francisco as a business litigation attorney. Deborah’s practice has been devoted to estate planning, probate, and trust administration since 1997, when she moved her practice from San Francisco to San Rafael to join the venerable law firm then known as Nelson, Boyd, MacDonald, Praetzel, Mitchell & Hedin, becoming a partner at the firm after two years.
A native of Marin County and a product of the local public school system, Deborah grew up in San Rafael, where she currently resides.
Deborah is a member of the State Bar of California, the Marin County Bar Association, and the Marin County Estate Planning Council.
She is a past board member of the Family and Children’s Law Center, the Marin County Bar Association and Mission San Rafael Rotary Club.
Harvard Law School
(Juris Doctor, 1993, cum laude)
University of California at Santa Barbara
(Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, 1988, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa)
Deborah’s estate planning practice is focused on the preparation of Revocable Trusts, Wills, Durable Powers of Attorney, Advance Health Care Directives, and the various documents needed to transfer assets into her clients’ Trusts.
When a person who created a Trust dies, the successor Trustee of the Trust must carry out various duties. Deborah helps her clients through every step of the trust administration, which involves, among other things, changing title to assets, arranging to pay debts, expenses, final income taxes, and, in some cases, estate taxes.
In some cases, when a person dies without having created a Trust during his or her lifetime, the person’s estate must be subject to a court process known as “probate” before any assets can be distributed to the individual’s beneficiaries. Deborah guides her clients through the entire court process, from the initial preparation and filing of the court documents needed to open the probate to the final distribution of the assets in the estate.
Estate Planning
Trust Administration
Probate