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On Jan. 1, 2013, amendments to California’s statutory law regarding revocation of trusts take effect.
The purpose is to allow a surviving spouse to revoke – i.e., takes back – some or all the assets held in a joint trust established while the couple were both alive that remained revocable after the first spouse’s death.
Let us examine the law as it exists and as amended.
First some basics: Revocation of a trust occurs when a contributing settlor revokes some or all of the property that he or she once transferred to the trust.
Revocation is not to be confused with a trust amendment which changes some or all of the trust’s terms (provisions) but still leaves the assets inside the trust. Under California law, a trust is revocable unless it says otherwise.
Presently, “[u]nless otherwise provided in the instrument, if a trust is created by more than one settlor, each settlor may revoke the trust as to the portion of the trust contributed by that settlor, except as provided in Section 761 of the Family Code [i.e., either spouse alone may revoke the couple’s community property in addition to his or her separate property].” Once revoked, trust assets are returned to the contributing settlor(s).
In 1990, the California Court of Appeals decided that such existing statutory language did not allow a surviving husband to revoke the half of the trust which belonged to his deceased wife’s estate – even though the trust assets were all community property right before the wife’s death.
This was because when the wife died the couple’s community property ceased being community property and instead became their undivided separate property.
Thus the surviving spouse’s power of revocation extended only to his one-half separate property share.
Had the couple’s joint trust expressly authorized the surviving spouse to revoke the deceased wife’s separate property then the entire trust would have been revoked.
Many existing revocable joint trusts similarly lack such authority for the surviving spouse.
As amended the new law permits that, “a settlor may grant to another person, including, but not limited to, his or her spouse, a power to revoke all of part of that portion of the trust contributed by the settlor.”
Interestingly, the foregoing allows a settlor to delegate someone other than his or her spouse to be the power holder. It does not even require the delegated person to be a co-settlor of the trust or even the settlor’s agent.
Also, the authority does not need to be inside the trust instrument itself. This may create unintended problems of their own.
Once revoked, the affected trust assets are disposed of “as provided in the trust instrument.” Otherwise, if the trust is silent the revoked assets instead are disposed of, “as directed by the person exercising the power of revocation.” In which case the power holder, presumably the surviving spouse, has power of ownership over the assets.
Furthermore, the delegated power of revocation will now be effective over all trust assets, “regardless of whether [they are] separate property or community property of that settlor, [and also] regardless of whether that power to revoke is exercisable during the lifetime of that settlor or continues after the death of that settlor, or both.”
That allows the surviving spouse/co-settlor authority to revoke a deceased spouse’s separate property inside a joint trust that remains revocable after the death of the first spouse.
The amended law contains its own technical ambiguities and creates its own potential pitfalls. These are certain to be litigated once the law is applied to decedent’s dying after 2012.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, Calif. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at
For years, many scientists had thought that plate tectonics existed nowhere in our solar system but on Earth.
Now, a UCLA scientist has discovered that the geological phenomenon, which involves the movement of huge crustal plates beneath a planet’s surface, also exists on Mars.
“Mars is at a primitive stage of plate tectonics. It gives us a glimpse of how the early Earth may have looked and may help us understand how plate tectonics began on Earth,” said An Yin, a UCLA professor of Earth and space sciences and the sole author of the new research.
Yin made the discovery during his analysis of satellite images from a NASA spacecraft known as THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) and from the HIRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. He analyzed about 100 satellite images – approximately a dozen were revealing of plate tectonics.
Yin has conducted geologic research in the Himalayas and Tibet, where two of the Earth’s seven major plates divide.
“When I studied the satellite images from Mars, many of the features looked very much like fault systems I have seen in the Himalayas and Tibet, and in California as well, including the geomorphology,” said Yin, a planetary geologist.
For example, he saw a very smooth, flat side of a canyon wall, which can be generated only by a fault, and a steep cliff, comparable to cliffs in California’s Death Valley, which also are generated by a fault. Mars has a linear volcanic zone, which Yin said is a typical product of plate tectonics.
“You don’t see these features anywhere else on other planets in our solar system, other than Earth and Mars,” said Yin, whose research is featured as the cover story in the August issue of the journal Lithosphere.
The surface of Mars contains the longest and deepest system of canyons in our solar system, known as Valles Marineris (Latin for Mariner Valleys and named for the Mariner 9 Mars orbiter of 1971, which discovered it). It is nearly 2,500 miles long – about nine times longer than the Earth’s Grand Canyon. Scientists have wondered for four decades how it formed. Was it a big crack in Mars’ shell that opened up?
“In the beginning, I did not expect plate tectonics, but the more I studied it, the more I realized Mars is so different from what other scientists anticipated,” Yin said. “I saw that the idea that it is just a big crack that opened up is incorrect. It is really a plate boundary, with horizontal motion. That is kind of shocking, but the evidence is quite clear.
“The shell is broken and is moving horizontally over a long distance,” Yin said. “It is very similar to the Earth’s Dead Sea fault system, which has also opened up and is moving horizontally.”
The two plates divided by Mars’ Valles Marineris have moved approximately 93 miles horizontally relative to each other, Yin said.
California’s San Andreas Fault, which is over the intersection of two plates, has moved about twice as much – but the Earth is about twice the size of Mars, so Yin said they are comparable.
Yin, whose research is partly funded by the National Science Foundation, calls the two plates on Mars the Valles Marineris North and the Valles Marineris South.
“Earth has a very broken ‘egg shell,’ so its surface has many plates; Mars’ is slightly broken and may be on the way to becoming very broken, except its pace is very slow due to its small size and, thus, less thermal energy to drive it,” Yin said. “This may be the reason Mars has fewer plates than on Earth.”
Mars has landslides, and Yin said aStuart Wolpert writes for the UCLA news service. fault is shifting the landslides, moving them from their source.
Does Yin think there are Mars-quakes?
“I think so,” he said. “I think the fault is probably still active, but not every day. It wakes up every once in a while, over a very long duration – perhaps every million years or more.”
Yin is very confident in his findings, but mysteries remain, he said, including how far beneath the surface the plates are located.
“I don’t quite understand why the plates are moving with such a large magnitude or what the rate of movement is; maybe Mars has a different form of plate tectonics,” Yin said. “The rate is much slower than on Earth.”
The Earth has a broken shell with seven major plates; pieces of the shell move, and one plate may move over another. Yin is doubtful that Mars has more than two plates.
“We have been able to identify only the two plates,” he said. “For the other areas on Mars, I think the chances are very, very small. I don’t see any other major crack.”
Did the movement of Valles Marineris North and Valles Marineris South create the enormous canyons on Mars? What led to the creation of plate tectonics on Earth?
Yin, who will continue to study plate tectonics on Mars, will answer those questions in a follow-up paper that he also plans to publish in the journal Lithosphere.
Stuart Wolpert writes for the UCLA news service.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – A pair of lightning-caused wildland fires in northern Mendocino County scorched more acreage on Friday as firefighters also made a gain in containment.
The North Pass Fires, burning since early last Saturday morning, had burned 21,558 acres by Friday night, with containment increasing to 18 percent, according to Cal Fire and the US Forest Service’s unified command on the incident.
The fires, burning 10 miles northeast of Covelo in the Williams Valley, continued to threaten dozens of residences east of Covelo, where officials said evacuations remained in effect on Friday.
Approximately 1,191 fire personnel were assigned to the fire on Friday. Other resources included 110 engines, 26 fire crews, two airtankers, seven helicopters, 32 bulldozers and 23 water tenders, unified command reported.
Officials said the fires were actively burning in heavy timber into the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness and continuing to spread to the East to Forest Road M1, south towards Anthony’s Ridge, north to Cedar Springs Ridge and northeast towards Pothole Creek and Steel Bench.
Firefighters continued to establish and improve containment lines while defending structures. They also made good progress on the west and southwest perimeter of the fire along Asa Bean Road, and the fires moved to within half a mile of Anthony Ridge along the Buck Creek drainage, according to the Friday evening report.
Incident command reported that smoke was likely to be especially heavy in the Covelo/Round Valley areas, where smoke concentrations have reached levels considered to be “hazardous” under state and federal air quality standards.
Those air quality conditions are expected to remain unchanged Saturday and for a few days afterward, fire officials reported.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
This week’s Fall Football Preview is following the county’s high school teams as they get ready for the upcoming season.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Upper Lake High Cougars, Lake County’s bounce-back team of 2011, are in a difference space this summer.
If you’re familiar with the double-wing power running game that Upper Lake coach Alex Stabiner likes to run, you’d be tempted to say that the space his players currently occupy is the approximate size of one of those old phone booths that faddish college kids use to pack in the 1950s.
In Stabiner’s “phone booth” offense, the Cougars cram as many players as possible between the tackles and then start up the bulldozer, which knocks down anything in the way and creates vast amounts of open space (yes, the “space” motif again) through which the running backs rumble.
Last year, the year the Cougars turned everything around, league offensive MVP Bradley Brackett – and isn’t that the perfect name for a kid who runs through and around phone booths? – gained 1,396 yards to lead the county in rushing.
But that different “space” the Cougars are occupying these days would also refer to their final position in the 2011 North Central League II standings – second behind the Tomales Braves – or their No. 7 spot in the preseason NCS Div. V ratings, one notch ahead of the Braves and one below California School for the Deaf, which knocked them out of the NCS playoffs last season with a first-round 27-24 victory.
Yes, the Cougars’ made the playoffs in their bounce-back season of 2011, but to appreciate what that means (as well as what a return trip to the playoffs could mean this year), you need to know from where they bounced.
A year ago, Upper Lake’s football program was shaking on its foundation and the old trophies were rattling on the shelves in the gymnasium lobby.
Coming off a 1-10 campaign and an off-season without a training program. the young varsity team showed up for the first day of summer practice – only to discover that not only did they have a new head coach, but he had just been hired about 20 minutes earlier.
But Stabiner knew the players, had coached most of them on the JV team.
There were some good senior athletes and a talented group of underclassmen that had won on the JV level and, perhaps just as important to Stabiner, had shown signs that, by and large; it was a rabid pack of competitors.
“This group really loves competition,” Stabiner said. “They just don’t like to lose.”
That competitive drive was obvious last year as Upper Lake started winning some games, but so were several of the team’s shortcomings, which probably cost the Cougars a chance to win two, maybe even three more.
Before their second game against league rival Tomales (the teams tied 8-8 in the first meeting), a half-dozen Upper Lake seniors blew off practice one day – and Stabiner benched them.
Tomales won the game, 24-20, which ultimately cost Upper Lake a chance for the league championship.
The Cougars still qualified for a Div. V playoff game, albeit against a tougher early opponent (California School for the Deaf) than they would have otherwise faced had they just taken care of business a little better.
The next case of poor judgment was when Stabiner’s team – including himself and his assistants, he’s quick to admit – didn’t take California School for the Deaf seriously enough.
The coaching staff studied the CSD films and came away feeling confident they would win. Too confident.
“They were a lot better in person than they were in the film,” he said, irony apparent in his tone.
So flash forward now to three weeks ago, when that formerly young and promising group of players start another round of summer drills.
This time they’re coming off a 7-3-1 season and had a shot at the league title and even got some playoff experience – but it’s obvious to their coach that all that wasn’t enough.
“On the first day of practice, it was on all of their faces, that they were on a mission,” Stabiner said.
Beyond their competitive nature, “it looked like they know what they need to do in order be compete.”
Actually, Stabiner said, the majority of the players had been on that mission since the playoff loss to CSD, at which time they began taking up new “off-season” activities like wrestling, pumping iron in the weight room, going to football camps, and otherwise working their tails off.
The might sense, like their coach, that opportunities like the upcoming season don’t come around every day.
The Cougars have the returning players to be an outstanding Div. V team, especially on offense.
Brackett graduated last spring, but the rest of the Cougars’ yardage-devourers are back, including Ward Beecher (1,073 yards, 17 TDs) and 6-1, 240-pound fullback Joe Valdez (746, 11 TDs).
Also back is quarterback Travis Coleman along with most of the offensive line, led by all-leaguer John Karlsson.
Coleman might even do more than hand the ball off this season, running it himself or throw a few more passes. But don’t expect a Stabiner team to ever start airing it out.
The Cougars threw a total of 31 passes all of last season – an average of less than three a game.
The defense is in good shape in the line, where Karlsson doubles up as an all-leaguer and Valdez, also an all-league pick, uses his strength and size. The secondary, where Coleman doubles as an all-league player, is also solid. The one area where graduation hurt the most was at linebacker.
They Cougars will get a chance to get even with CSD as well as Tomales this season in the new NCL II-Bay Football League, which also includes St. Vincent of Petaluma, Calistoga, Stellar Prep, Emery, and St. Elizabeth.
Rich Mellott can be reached at
Upper Lake Cougars
Coach/Record: Alex Stabiner (2nd season), 7-3-1.
Assistants: Frank Gudmunson, Thomas Burnett, Ron Campos, Tim Green.
Last year: 7-3-3.
League: 4-1-1 (2nd in NCL II).
Returning starters: 7 on offense, 6 on defense.
Top players: All-leaguers Jon Karlsson (OL/DL), Joe Valdez (RB/DL), Travis Coleman (DB/QB), Ward Beecher (RB).
Key games: Sept. 8 vs. Middletown will be a good non-league test, and Sept. 21 at Calif. School for the Deaf is a key NCL II-Bay Football contest (along with being a rematch of last year’s NCS Div. V playoff opener won by CSD). Season finale Nov. 2 against Tomales also looms; the NCL II champion Braves beat the Cougars for the title last year.
Annual scrimmage tonight at Clear Lake High
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Like the Clear Lake team that hosts it, the annual Lake County Scrimmage tonight (6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Lakeport) has a leaner look than in previous years.
Varsity and JV teams from only three schools are participating – Clear Lake, Upper Lake and Middletown – because Kelseyville and Lower Lake dropped out to hold their own scrimmage last Friday at Kelseyville.
Admission to the 18th annual fundraiser for the Clear Lake athletic program is $3 – lower than in past years, but fans won’t get the meal that traditionally came with their ticket. Instead, the concession stand will be open.
Here’s how the teams will square off: Varsity offenses face the west end zone at Don Owens Stadium, JV offenses face the east end zone, with each offensive and defensive unit getting 15 minutes against opposing units.
Fort Bragg changes football coaches right before season opener
FORT BRAGG, Calif. – Ray Perkins, a former assistant coach under Timberwolves’ coaching legend Jack Moyer, became Fort Bragg’s new head football coach earlier this week – just days before tonight’s season opener at McKinleyville.
Perkins, formerly the head coach at Pierce High in Arbuckle (2005-2009), replaced Kevin Costello, who coached the Timberwolves last season but resigned earlier this month amid reports of dissension among his assistant coaches.
The Timbervolves’ assistants have been running the summer practice sessions.
Perkins, whose teams at Pierce compiled a 21-31 record over five seasons, left Arbuckle earlier this year to take a teaching job at Fort Bragg’s alternative high school.
A second NCL I team from Mendocino County opens the season tonight on the road – but Willits has a better shot at defeating Richmond High than Fort Bragg has against McKinleyville.
Richmond is an NCS Div. II team (compared to Willits’ Div. IV status), but the East Bay school went 1-9 last year and opens the season at the very bottom of 25-school Div. II section rankings.
The Wolverines (9-3), ranked ninth among Div. IV teams and expected to battle St. Helena and Middletown for the NCL I title, should open with a victory.
Fort Bragg and McKinleyville appear to be evenly matched Div. IV teams.
Rich Mellott can be reached at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Unemployment rates in Lake County and statewide remained unchanged in July, with nationwide unemployment up slightly according to the latest reports on jobs.
The California Employment Development Department’s report said Lake County’s July unemployment rate was 14.7 percent, unchanged from June but down from 16.2 percent in July 2011.
California’s unemployment rate was 10.7 percent in July, unchanged from June, and down from 11.9 percent in July 2011, according to data derived from federal survey of 5,500 California households, the report showed.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nationwide unemployment rate increased in July to 8.3 percent, up from 8.2 percent in June but down from 9.1 percent in July 2011.
Lake County, which has plateaued at the 14.7 rate since May, had a total wage and salary employment decrease of 450 jobs between June and July, according to Dennis Mullins of the Employment Development Department’s North Coast Region Labor Market Information Division.
Mullins said the government category – primarily education – had cutbacks that entirely offset a private industry gain of 80 jobs over the month.
For the year, Lake is down 370 jobs with four industry sectors gaining and seven declining. Total government jobs are down 410 over the year, he said.
Year-over job growth in Lake County occurred in farm, 60; trade, transportation and utilities, 20; private educational and health services, 10; and leisure and hospitality, 20, Mullins reported.
Lake County industry sectors showing declines over the year included mining, logging and construction (-30), manufacturing (-10), information (-10), financial activities (-10), professional and business services (-20), other services (-10) and government (-410).
Marin remained the county with the lowest unemployment statewide, at 6.7 percent, with Imperial County coming in with the highest unemployment, 29.9 percent.
Lake County remained ranked No. 45 among California’s 58 counties, while its neighboring counties showed the following July rates: Colusa County, No. 55, 17.3 percent; Glenn, No. 48, 15.2 percent; Mendocino, No. 20, 9.8 percent; Napa, No. 4, 7.7 percent; Sonoma, No. 8, 8.6 percent; and Yolo, No. 23, 10.5 percent.
Employment detail shows where jobs were added, lost
The Employment Development Department said there were 518,605 people receiving regular
unemployment insurance benefits during the July survey week, compared with 483,445 in June and 566,380 in July 2011.
New unemployment insurance claims for numbered 52,336 last month, compared with 66,296 in June
and 57,897 in July of last year, according to the report.
California’s nonfarm payroll jobs increased by 25,200 to a total of 14,358,600 in July, following 45,000 jobs gained in June, for a total gain of 507,200 jobs since the recovery began in September 2009, the report said.
The Employment Development Department bases those estimates on a survey of 42,000 California businesses. The year-over-year change – July 2011 to July 2012 – shows an increase of 365,100 jobs, up 2.6 percent.
The federal survey of 5,500 households showed a decrease in the number of employed people, estimating that Californians holding jobs in July was 16,444,000, a decrease of 40,000 from June, but up 277,000 from the employment total in July of last year.
The number of people unemployed in California was 1,962,000 – down by 12,000 over the month, and down by 228,000 compared with July of last year, according to the report.
The report showed that six categories – financial activities; professional and business services; educational and health services; leisure and hospitality; other services; and government – added jobs
over the month, gaining 41,300 jobs. Professional and business services posted the largest increase over the month, adding 15,200 jobs.
Four categories – construction; manufacturing; trade, transportation and utilities; and information – reported job declines over the month, down 16,100 jobs, the state said. Trade, transportation and utilities posted the largest decrease over the month, down 8,000 jobs. One category, mining and logging, was unchanged over the month.
In a year-over-year comparison – July 2011 to July 2012 – nonfarm payroll employment in California increased by 365,100 jobs, up 2.6 percent, according to the Employment Development Department.
Ten categories – mining and logging; construction; trade, transportation and utilities; information; financial activities; professional and business services; educational and health services; leisure and hospitality; other services; and government – posted job gains over the year, adding 372,500 jobs, the report noted.
It showed that professional and business services posted the largest gains on both a numerical and percentage basis, adding 115,600 jobs, up 5.4 percent.
The report noted that one category, manufacturing, posted job declines over the year, down 7,400 jobs, a 0.6 percent decline.
Email Elizabeth Larson at