Ivette Santaella
Santaella Legal Group, APC
You’ve spent your life building your wealth. And no matter how large or how modest – protecting your assets matters.
Ivette Santaella understands that estate planning may seem daunting. You might feel uncomfortable talking about what happens after death. Or maybe you’re worried that you don’t understand the laws well enough. Santaella Law Group, APC is here to guide you through your concerns and make estate planning easy.
Ivette has more than 30 years of experience talking her clients through their goals, translating and helping them navigate the law, and working with them to come up with a solid plan for their estate. She’s drafted hundreds of trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney and other relevant estate planning documents – all customized for the unique needs of her clients. Ivette is determined to make sure her clients’ wishes are protected regarding their wealth and assets, in both life and death.
In case of a familial dispute, Ivette is trained in Collaborative Law for Estate Planning. A collaborative approach brings families together in order to understand your estate wishes and prevents disputes, anger, and confusion. It also means that in the event of a dispute, Ivette can mediate between family members to avoid going to court.
Additionally, Ivette is qualified in elder law (including Medi-Cal planning), Special Needs, trust administration, conservatorships and nursing home abuse.
Here’s some of the ways Ivette can help you:
-Apply for and, when necessary, fight for Medi-Cal benefits
-Assist you through the bankruptcy process
-Form a new business
-Navigate the conservatorship process
-Develop an estate plan to cut down on conflict and confusion should you pass away
-Navigate the probate process
-Craft or update a will or trust
Ivette is fluent in Spanish and is excited to be able to provide every one of her clients with the exemplary legal counsel they deserve.
- University of California - Irvine
- MBA | Information Technology Management
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- American University
- J.D. | Law
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- Fordham University
- B.A. | English/Art History
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- Attorney at Law
- Santaella Legal Group
- - Current
- Prepare estate planning documents - trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. -- to assist client with legacy planning, avoidance of probate and tax minimization. Work with family owned and closely held business on business succession planning issues. Negotiate, draft and finalize commercial, inbound/outbound licensing, services/consulting, real property and other corporate related agreements for small to mid-size companies.
- Attorney at Law
- Law Office of Ivette M. Santaella
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- Prepare estate planning documents - trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. -- to assist client with legacy planning, avoidance of probate and tax minimization. Work with family owned and closely held business on business succession planning issues. Negotiate, draft and finalize commercial, inbound/outbound licensing, services/consulting, real property and other corporate related agreements for small to mid-size companies.
- Senior Corporate Counsel
- Symantec Corporation
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- Legal Support and Senior Negotiator, Contract Drafter for Licensing, Sales, Services, Consulting, Services, Procurement, Marketing, Data Privacy, Security, Financial and other contractual transactions. ? Improved work flow and developed processes to increase efficiency and coordination between the sales, supply chain and procurement organizations and Legal to increase efficiencies and reduce contract turnaround time. ? Tasked with consolidating all key IT, Services and Consulting agreements from regional contracts to master agreements to capitalize on price savings and ensure consistency of contract provisions. ? Prepared training materials, conducted training, drafted playbook and templates for all sales and procurement Contract Negotiators and Managers. ? Managed and mentored Junior Attorneys, Paralegals, Contract Negotiators and Support Staff worldwide. ? Areas of responsibility included EMEA, APJ and Latin America.
- Senior Corporate Counsel
- Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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- Product & Sales Law Group [2002-2004] Negotiated and drafted domestic and international Product Development, Strategic Alliance, Joint Development, Outbound/Inbound Licensing, Sales [Revenue Recognition], Marketing/Competition, OEM and other commercial transaction agreements. Legal support and Negotiator for product engineers, sales staff, marketing groups and other related functions. Counseled and trained sales staff on Due Diligence procedures, Product Development/Release process, antitrust issues, corporate compliance, use of templates and preparation of Statements of Work [SOWs]. Responsible for managing/mentoring Junior Attorneys, Paralegals and Contract Negotiators. Corporate IT/Commercial Counsel [2000-2002] Sole legal support to CIO and Senior Management, Procurement teams, Supply Chain and IT Sourcing Council. Negotiated and drafted Outbound/Inbound Licensing, Intellectual Property, Telco, Outsourcing, Consulting, Marketing, Data Privacy and other worldwide multi-million dollar agreements. Set up legal infrastructure worldwide for Contract Managers which included drafting templates, playbooks and training over 200 people worldwide over a 2 year period. Retained and worked with outside counsel domestically. ? Recommended and implemented a new process between Legal and Business Partners to prepare RFP's and review bids from vendors and cut time to contract by 30%. ? Received special commendation from Sun Executive Vice President for legal support in completing $33 million dollar/year outsourcing deal that reduced Sun’s expenses 20-30%.
- Client Champion Silver
- Martindale-Hubbell
- Martindale-Hubbell’s new Client Champion awards recognize those attorneys who excel at service as affirmed by their clients. The awards, based on the quantity and quality of an attorney’s Martindale-Hubbell client reviews, demonstrate an ongoing commitment to delivering excellent client service. Award recipients stand out from their peers with a platinum, gold or silver icon.
- Top Attorney Elder Law
- Avvo
- Top Contributor
- Avvo
- Earl Warren American Inn of Court
- Member
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- South Asian Bar Association
- Member
- - Current
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- Wealth Counsel
- Member
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- La Raza Bar Association
- Member
- - Current
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- Contra Costa Bar Association
- Member
- - Current
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- Contra Costa County Hispanic Bar Association
- Member
- - Current
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- California
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Credit Cards Accepted
Visa, MasterCard -
Rates, Retainers and Additional Information
$350/hour; fixed fees when applicable
- Estate Planning
- Guardianship & Conservatorship Estate Administration, Health Care Directives, Trusts, Wills
- Elder Law
- Intellectual Property
- Probate
- Probate Administration, Probate Litigation, Will Contests
- English: Spoken, Written
- Spanish: Spoken, Written
- Q. Lawyers hired by Probate Executor...
- A: Hello,
Since the executor retained counsel, the counsel reports to the executor who represents the estate.
the family can retain their own counsel if they feel that the executor is not acting appropriately and can advise the court.
- Q. My stepdad passed away, he has a will. The estate lawyer wants to meet my mother to go over things, is that still needed
- A: Hello, It will not be harmful, but helpful in getting your step dad's estate distributed. It is normal to have an attorney assist with the trust administration as there are many responsibilities for the successor Trustee.
- Q. I had a sister who lived in California recently passed away. husband two sons . large estate . As half brother
- A: Hello,
Only if it is outlined in her trust or Will. If you are a beneficiary you will hear from the Trustee of the trust or executor of the Will.
- Website
- Website