Joe Ferrucci is a partner in the firm’s Trusts and Estates group and a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.  He has more than 15 years of experience in estate planning and trust administration.  Joe has a collaborative approach.  He aims to provide each client with practical information and guidance to make informed decisions, whether they are planning for the future, facing a health problem, or recovering from the loss of a loved one. 

His estate planning experience includes:

  • Preparing living trusts, wills, powers of attorney, and advance health care directives.

  • Advising clients on estate tax, gift tax, and GST tax.

  • Advising clients on estate planning for community property and separate property assets.

  • Preparing complex estate plans for HNW estates, including irrevocable gift and GST trusts, life insurance trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, and charitable trusts. 

  • Preparing estate plans for cross-border clients, between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. 

  • Preparing estate plans for LGBT individuals and couples, unmarried couples, and registered domestic partners. 

  • Preparing first-party and third-party special needs trusts; advising clients on pooled special needs trusts.

Additional experience includes:

  • Advising individual trustees and on trust administration following the incapacity or death of a loved one, including the administration of HNW estates.

  • Representing private professional fiduciaries acting as trustees.

  • Preparing fiduciary accountings.

  • Preparing estate and gift tax returns; advising on valuation issues and other tax reporting positions. 

  • Preparing property co-ownership agreements, promissory notes, and deeds; advising on Prop. 13 transfers of real property and reassessment exclusions.

  • Handling entity formation for investment properties.

  • Preparing California Attorney General filings for charitable trusts.

  • Filing successful probate court petitions for trust modification, trustee succession, confirmation of trustee actions, confirmation of trust assets (Heggstad).

  • Successfully handling probate estate administration matters in San Francisco, Alameda, and Marin counties.

  • Representing a client on a contested conservatorship and trust administration matter, including extensive settlement negotiations and mediation.

  • Representing trust and estate beneficiaries.

Practice Areas:

  • Estate Planning

  • Trust Administration

  • Estate and Gift Tax

  • International Estate Planning

  • Probate and Conservatorship

Education:

  • JD, University of California College of the Law (formerly UC Hastings)

  • LLM Taxation, Golden Gate University

  • BA, Yale University

Memberships:

  • State Bar of California

  • California Lawyers Association, Trusts and Estates Section

  • Bar Association of San Francisco

  • Marin County Bar Association

  • Sonoma County Bar Association

  • Redwood Empire Estate Planning Council

  • AIDS Legal Referral Panel (ALRP), Panel Attorney

Presentations:

  • Mill Valley Library Foundation, October 16, 2024, “California Estate Planning”