Sara has been an estate, probate, and trust attorney for almost thirty-five years.*

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Sara graduated from CU Boulder in 1987 and from California Western School of Law in San Diego in 1991.  She passed the California Bar Exam in 1991 and began her legal career with a mid-sized law firm in downtown San Diego specializing in all aspects of trust and estate law (estate planning, litigation, elder abuse, conservatorships, administrations).  After four years with this law firm, she left to join her father's trust and estate law practice in La Jolla, CA. Sara's father was a trust and estate attorney and probate judge in San Diego for almost 60 years and her step-mother is currently a private professional fiduciary in San Diego, so you might say that Sara's inherent understanding of trust and estate's law originated in her blood.  Thereafter, over the next twenty-five years, Sara continued to practiced trust and estate law in Park City, UT, Santa Barbara, CA and Napa, CA.  

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In 2010, in addition to her legal practice, Sara also began serving as a Private Professional Fiduciary (“PPF”). As a PPF, Sara serves as a Trustee of trust administrations, as Executor/Administrator of probate administrations, and as a Conservator/Guardian of estates for incompetent or minor clients. While Sara occasionally serves as a PPF in non-litigated cases, her specialty is serving as the court-appointed Trustee for high net-worth litigated trust administration cases.

 

For the last ten plus years, Sara has focused exclusively on her PPF practice.  She has now opened a second location for her PPF practice in Denver. While serving as a Trustee in various cases, Sara has managed tens of millions of dollars in trust assets. The character of assets involved in each case varies.  Assets have included commercial properties, single-family properties, multi-family properties (apartment buildings), ongoing businesses/corporations, and investment accounts.

 

As the Trustee/Owner of these assets, Sara has been responsible for either personally managing the assets or hiring appropriate professionals as managers. In each case, Sara ensures that she has the proper team in place (lawyers, accountants, real estate professionals, financial advisors) so that each estate is protected and administered efficiently. In many cases, Sara uses her legal training to perform routine administration duties which ends up saving money in attorneys' fees when a licensed CO attorney is not required.

 

Sara’s litigated cases typically involve families where the members are unable to agree on various issues after a loved one has passed away. With the help of her legal counsel when needed, Sara has pursued litigation on behalf of the deceased person to enforce his/her final wishes as set forth in the estate planning documents. She has also recovered assets improperly removed from the estate both before and after the person passed away, including an elderly woman's home fraudulently stolen from her utilizing California's strong elder abuse statutes. She has also been involved in litigation to void purported estate planning documents that were procured through undue influence or were signed when the decedent was incompetent. From firearms to jewelry, to the embezzlement cash and the fraudulent transfer of real estate, Sara has successfully recovered millions of dollars in her role as both a lawyer and a PPF in litigated cases.

 

Should you choose CCFS as the professional fiduciary for your estate, Sara personally handles each case as she limits the number of cases that she accepts. You will only be dealing with Sara; no secretary, intern, or assistant.  Where required, Sara will work outside regular Monday – Friday business hours. She also often makes house calls to the primary beneficiaries of a case.  Clients/beneficiaries can be assured Sara will provide them with the utmost personal care and attention because ongoing communication with legally interested parties is the primary key to a successful administration.  CCFS also carries malpractice insurance that covers all of PPF work. 

 

*Please note that while Sara remains a licensed CA attorney, she no longer practices law as an attorney in any state.