Family Law

• Child Support
  The good news is that the State will not just “take” your money if you pass away: you have to owe the State money (like back taxes, certain Medi-Cal benefits, or unpaid child support obligations) before the State shows up with a bill. However, probate court can be rather expensive: average fees and costs range from 4% to 8% of the gross value of the estate. If the estate includes land, then add another 7% to 8% of the property’s value for sale-related expenses — the fees really add up. With a living trust, the loved ones you leave behind avoid the probate court expenses.

Property Law

• Real Estate Transactions
  I started my career in real estate transactions back in 1993, starting with foreclosure issues, followed by several years focused on commercial real estate transactions. Often, real estate and estate planning issues go hand in hand, so I have offered estate planning services since 2005, when I became a lawyer.

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  Proudly serving Benicia, Solano County, and the Greater Bay Area since 2005, Jason S. Buckingham provides painless, affordable, fast estate planning services.
• Trusts
  In a word, no. A living trust is a way to avoid probate, not evade creditors. There are some people who claim their fancy “asset protection” trusts will shield assets from legitimate creditors, but in practice, it usually doesn’t work out that way. In the law, there are concepts like “piercing the corporate veil” and “fraudulent transfers” that allow clever lawyers and creditors to reach assets in so-called asset protection trusts. This isn’t to say that there’s no such thing as limited liability: for example, if you set up an LLC to own a rental property, and someone claims they were injured at the property, then (with some limited exceptions) your personal assets are separate from the LLC asset (the rental property).
• Probate

Finance Law

• Foreclosure