Course Category : Ethics & Cultural Competency

Rules Of Engagement: When You’re The Only Ethical Adult In The Room

Liza and Robyn will bring you tips from the trenches of litigation representing fiduciaries and interested persons to protect elders, disabled individuals, and children. We will review the duties we share to: (1) avoid and prepare for ethically-managed litigation; (2) ensure fiduciaries understand the rules of engagement in litigation; and, (3) present real-life examples of […]

Evaluating And Defending Challenging Special Needs Trust Disbursement Requests

This program describes how to evaluate and defend a trustee’s decisions on Special Needs Trust distributions. A professional fiduciary will face difficult decisions when a beneficiary seeks disbursement for something that may be challenged by the Social Security Administration (SSA), a Probate Judge, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), other family members, or some […]

When It Hits The Fan: Consequences For Breaching Fiduciary Duties, And How To Avoid Doing It

“For every wrong there is a remedy” When a conservatee or beneficiary asserts a legal claim against a fiduciary, it will be based on a wrong they have purportedly suffered. The court’s analysis of that claim will always involve certain steps: What duties, if any, does the fiduciary owe to the complaining person? Was there […]

Working with Asian American Clients

This course will be very informative on how to understand and work with Asian American Clients.

Cultural Awareness “A Panelist Discussion”

Our continued dialogue on how professional fiduciaries can best understand and serve our diverse communities

How to deal with difficult people – a Judicial Persective

“Judge David L Belz is currently assigned to the Probate Department in Orange County Superior Court. In his legal career he was a trial attorney in private practice for 32 years before his appointment to the Orange County Bench in 2009. He served 5 years in family court and is currently assigned to the probate […]

When Your Job Is Being The Ethical Adult In The Room

Ethical canons expressly require professional fiduciaries make decisions about “best interests” through the prism of their clients’ known ethnic, religious, social, and cultural values. Notably missing from this list is an oft-elided dynamic—many clients and their families are entrenched in dysfunction. How do you recognize and take into consideration the effect of this environment when […]

The Law, Ethics, And Practicalities Of The Private Professional Fiduciary As Petitioner

This presentation analyzes the legal guidelines and parameters of the Private Professional Fiduciary taking on the role as Petitioner in Conservatorship, Guardianship, Decedent Estates, and Trusts. In addition to the law, the discussion includes an analysis of the ethics rules applicable to fiduciaries and their attorneys when the fiduciary acts as the Petitioner. The law […]

Financial Standard of Care: With A Focus on Ethics

A comprehensive presentation setting forth the financial standard of care for the various fiduciary roles of trustee, conservator, power of attorney, and administrator of decedent’s estate. The presentation addresses the ethical parameters that envelope each of these specific fiduciary duties. Throughout the presentation the panelists highlight useful practice pointers in regard to the practicalities of […]

Fiduciary Neutrality: When to Join the Fight. The Ethics, Law and Practice of Neutrality – Part I

The panelists will provide an in-depth analysis of the statutes and case law defining the fiduciary’s ethical duty of neutrality depending on the circumstances. The perception of neutrality of a professional fiduciary can be very important to the effectiveness of that fiduciary in solving contested in a case. The Honorable David J. Cowan, the Supervising […]