From changes in the tax assessments of inherited property in California to new Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) guidance regarding the nondeductibility of expenses paid by PPP loans, we have recently seen significant developments in estate planning and business law. To ensure that you stay abreast of these legal changes, we have highlighted some noteworthy developments and analyzed how they may impact your estate planning and business law practice.

Proposition 19, a California ballot measure, modifies Proposition 13 (which limits increases of real property tax to two percent per year unless reassessed due to sale or transfer) and Proposition 58 (which allows property owners to transfer their primary residence to their children at the preferential property tax assessment and up to $1 million of assessed value of other real property, with a later proposition extending the benefit to qualifying grandchildren).

Suppose you are hired by a trustee or executor to assist in trust or estate administration. Then a beneficiary calls you, wanting information about what the trustee or executor is up to.

This poses a dilemma. How much information are beneficiaries entitled to? The issue rests on the chassis of attorney-client confidentiality. Where attorneys have a relationship with fiduciaries; and the fiduciaries, in their turn, owe a duty to beneficiaries; how far does the attorney-client privilege extend?

Some jurisdictions have adopted a doctrine known as the “fiduciary exception” to the attorney-client privilege. This holds that beneficiaries have the right to disclosure of legal advice as it relates to fiduciaries’ conduct in administering their fiduciary duties.