Pamela Valencia Receives Estate Planning Specialist Designation

The law firm is pleased to announce that our associate attorney, Pamela Y. Valencia, has been designated a Certified Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law Specialist by the California Bar Board of Legal Specialization. This designation demonstrates Pamela’s specialized knowledge and experience in estate planning, probate, conservatorship, trust administration and litigation involving Wills and trusts. Dennis M. Sandoval is proud that his law firm is one of very few law firms in the Inland Empire with two attorneys certified as specialists in estate planning.

• Dennis Sandoval has recently been recertified as a Certified
  Taxation Law Specialist by the California Bar Board of Legal
  Specialization. Mr. Sandoval is one of only three taxation
  Law Specialists in Riverside County and the only attorney
  in California to be certified as a Taxation Law Specialist,
  an Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Specialist and
  a Certified Elder Law Attorney

• Dennis Sandoval will be teaching a group of attorneys
  hoping to become Certified Elder Law Attorneys about the
  estate planning and tax intricacies of Individual Retirement
  Accounts and other Retirement Plans at the NAELA Fall Symposium
  at Tucson, Arizona in early December 2005

• In November 2005, Dennis will be addressing the Inland
  Empire Chapter of the ALS Support Group. ALS, or Amyotrophic
  Lateral Sclerosis, which is also commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s
  Disease, is the most common form of motor neuron disease

• Dennis Sandoval addressed a large group of Enrolled Agents
  at the Inland Empire Enrolled Agent Society November chapter
  meeting. His talk was: Tips, Tricks and Traps in Preparing
  the Final 1040, 1041 and 706

• Mr. Sandoval and Karen Griffith Professional Geriatric
  Care Manager, addressed a group of seniors at The Janet
  Goeske Senior Center and the Dales Senior Center in Riverside
  regarding the intricacies of the new Medicare Part D Prescription
  Drug Plan

• At the invitation of the Director of Law and Public Policy
  for the University of California at Riverside Extension,
  Mr. Sandoval taught an all day session for attorneys, trust
  officers, CPAs and other professionals about the mechanics
  of drafting trusts for special needs beneficiaries and administering
  special needs trusts without causing the special needs beneficiary
  to lose eligibility for valuable government assistance

• Dennis Sandoval’s article, “Tax Efficient
  Funding of Special Needs Trusts” appeared in the October
  2005 issue of Estate Planning Journal, the premier magazine
  dedicated to estate planning professionals.

• In September 2005, Karen Griffith and Dennis Sandoval
  taught two classes for the parents of Special Needs Beneficiaries
  at Crossroads Disability Ministry and the Riverside office
  of the Alliance for Retarded Citizens

• Dennis Sandoval addressed the American Academy of Estate
  Planning Attorneys at their Fall Event in San Diego, California.
  His topics were Historical Trust Administration and Annuities,
  Life Insurance and Trusts: A Recipe for Malpractice

• Once again Dennis Sandoval was a featured speaker for
  the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys at their
  Spring Event in Miami, Florida. His topics included: Estate
  Tax Repeal Update; Magical Mystery Tour: An Overview of
  Planning with Retirement Assets and Trusts; What Every Personal
  Injury Attorney Needs to Know About Litigation Special Needs
  Trusts and an Estate Tax Law Ethics Update

• In April 2005, Dennis Sandoval taught the Retirement Assets
  segment of the Certified Elder Lawyer Review Course for
  the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys in San Francisco,
  California

• Dennis Sandoval was a featured speaker, along with Ruth
  Phelps and David Rice at the Southern California Chapter
  of the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys Spring
  Meeting. Their topic, which received an overwhelmingly positive
  response, was the use of Defective Grantor Trusts in Medi-Cal
  Planning. The emphasis of the talk was how to draft the
  trust to avoid the new recovery regulations that the California
  Department of Health Services is attempting to put into
  effect

• Mr. Sandoval was elected to serve as the Secretary of
  the Southern California Chapter of the National Academy
  of Elder Law Attorneys for the year 2005

• Dennis is elected to serve as the 2003 / 2004 chairperson
  for the Estate Planning Section of the Riverside County
  Bar Association Estate Planning Section