Will & trust contests · Santa Monica
Will and trust contests in Santa Monica
Palisades Park along Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. Photo: bynyalcin, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
When the estate includes a Santa Monica home, a great deal is at stake, and sometimes someone close to a parent decides to take it. John J. Donahue litigates those fights for Westside families.
Why the stakes run high here
Westside homes have climbed in value for decades, often far beyond what parents paid. A late amendment that moves one house can move more money than everything else in the estate combined. That is why Santa Monica contests so often turn on one question: who got to Mom or Dad near the end, and how?
Common patterns in Westside cases
The new companion. A widowed parent’s partner of a few years becomes trustee, or gets the house. Read a story like this →
The trustee who lives in the house. A sibling stays in a parent’s home as trustee, pays nothing and has no plan to sell or account. Read a story like this →
The changed beneficiary. Retirement accounts and insurance that bypass the trust entirely. Read a story like this →
The clause. A no-contest clause meant to keep a child from asking questions. Read a story like this →
Where it’s heard
Santa Monica cases are filed with the Los Angeles County court’s Probate Division. Hearings are mostly downtown at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, mediation is common, and long trials can be sent to a separate trial department.
From the calls John gets
The house near 26th Street
Dad’s house near 26th Street was going to his three children. Two years before he died, his companion moved in. A trust amendment signed the next spring made her trustee and gave her the right to live in the house for life. The children found out at the memorial.
What John looks at: Who found the lawyer, whether Dad met with the lawyer alone, his medical records from that spring, and the 120 days from the trustee’s notice. A life estate can tie up a house for decades, so these cases are worth looking at early.
Illustration. Details changed; not a real client. Read a story like this →
Every name for these cases
In court papers you will see them called trust contests, will contests, petitions to invalidate an amendment, petitions to remove a trustee, petitions to compel an accounting, or claims of undue influence and financial elder abuse. To a family it is simpler: Dad’s plan changed, and someone close to him gained.
Before you confront anyone
The instinct is to call the companion, the sibling or the trustee and demand an explanation. Hold that call. A heated conversation rarely produces documents, and it can prompt someone to move money, sell belongings or hire a lawyer before you have seen anything.
Quieter steps work better: a written request for the trust and every amendment, a list of what you know was in the house, copies of anything you already have, and the date on every notice. If there is a life estate or a pending sale, time matters more than usual. Then call John, and let the first contact the other side gets be a careful one.
In families’ own words
What Westside families ask
Is a life estate the same as owning the house?
No. It lets someone live in or use the house for their lifetime; afterward it goes to whoever the trust names. It can mean the children wait decades, while the person living there has to keep up the property and pay its taxes.
Do we need to prove Dad was incompetent?
No. Undue influence can be proven even when a parent understood what they signed, if someone used their trust or dependence to change the plan.
The trustee won’t let us in to get Mom’s things.
Personal belongings are part of the trust or estate. A trustee has to handle them fairly, and the court can order a plan for them.
Can this be settled privately?
Often. Many contests settle at mediation, with an agreement the court approves.
Do you work on contingency here?
For qualifying cases, yes, anywhere in California. How contingency works →
Stories from families like yours
The late change
The diagnosis and the signature, the same month.
Dad’s dementia was in his medical chart. So was the new trust amendment.
The second wife
“Dad’s wife got everything. Her kids get it next.”
For years the plan included his children. In his last two years, it changed to everything to her.
The house in Mom’s name
“Mom kept it simple. Now nobody can sell the house.”
No trust, no fight, just a house in Mom’s name. And nothing moves without the court.
Elsewhere John works
Will contestsTrust contestsProbate in Santa MonicaContests in Los Angeles CountyContests in Orange CountyContests in Los AngelesContests in PasadenaContests in Beverly HillsContests in Long BeachContests in GlendaleContests in TorranceContests in WhittierContests in IrvineContests in Huntington Beach