Westminster Law Blog

As you begin to experience personal and professional prosperity in Westminster, your thoughts should turn to estate planning. The most common reason cited by those who come to see us here at The Law Firm of Lan Quoc Nguyen & Associates as to why they wait so long to begin such planning is that they do not want to consider the prospect of their own deaths. While that concern may be understandable, there is danger in waiting too long. If you keep putting this important process off, you could end up dying without a will. 

What happens then? If you die without a will, you are said to be "intestate." The California Probate Code has established guidelines on how an intestate estate is to be dispersed. If you die intestate, your surviving spouse is automatically identified as your primary heir. He or she will receive half of your estate if you have any issue (direct descendants) or any living immediate family members (parents and siblings). That share reduces to one-third if you leave behind more than one child or more than one grandchild. If you have no surviving issue or relatives, your spouse would receive your entire estate. 

Not all car accidents are created equal. Should you be involved in a minor fender-bender in Westminster, then your repair costs (and medical costs, if there are any) are likely to be fairly low and will often be covered completely by auto insurance. High-impact collisions, on the other hand, can easily produce extensive damage to your vehicle and leave you and/or your family members facing enormous medical expenses. When this happens, you may be forced to seek compensation from the driver responsible. Yet if he or she is a teen, then he or she is unlikely to be able to help you. Can you then try to hold his or her parents responsible? 

The legal principle of negligent entrustment allows you to assign liability to one who allowed another to driver to operate his or her vehicle. Per California's Civil Jury Instructions, the following elements must be proven in order to apply negligent entrustment to your case: 

• A driver was negligent in operating a vehicle
• The driver had the vehicle at the permission of its owner
• The owner should have known the driver to be inexperienced, incompetent or reckless
• The owner knowingly entrusted the vehicle to the driver
• The driver's inexperience, incompetence or recklessness was a substantial factor in your accident

For Vietnamese business owners in California’s Little Saigon/Westminster area and beyond, setting up or restructuring your company as an S corporation has some advantages to consider. This business form limits the number of shareholders and offers some appealing tax benefits as well. Here is a brief look at some of the pros and cons of forming an S corporation.

According to the state Franchise Tax Board, an S corporation does not have to pay any federal income tax. It does have to pay a 1.5-percent tax on its net income, however, to the state of California. Like a partnership, this structure allows income, credits and deductions to flow from the corporation to its shareholders. The shareholders, in turn, claim the income or losses on their personal income tax, where it is then taxed at the shareholder level instead of the corporate level.

While modern custom in Vietnam is typically not to make a will, the case for Vietnamese families living in California is not the same. A clear-cut will is necessary to ensure the wishes of each person is followed in distributing his or her assets following death.

According to Vietnam Law magazine, ancient Vietnamese laws governed inheritances among all family members, with one of the most notable points being that spouses could not inherit from each other when one dies. The idea behind that cultural norm was that the assets (usually land), remained in the families from which each came. Modern Vietnamese laws have changed to allow a ranking system that places family members in a line of inheritance, with spouses sharing the highest rank and right of inheritance with a spouse’s parents, grandparents and children. This reinforces the traditional role of inheritances among family members.