Julie King

With 30+ years’ experience, Julie King practices law with the highest standards of ethics and professionalism. She is easy to speak with and talks in plain English (not legalese). Julie handles a wide variety of estate planning and business matters including: (1) ESTATE PLANNING - wills and trusts, health care directives, powers of attorney, special needs trusts, pet trusts, grant deeds and more; and (2) BUSINESS LAW - corporation/LLC/partnership formation, annual meeting minutes, corporate records, contracts, and employee training.

Julie served as in-house counsel to major international corporations, including Toshiba America, where she worked for 15 years and hired lawyers throughout the world. She has been a "client", so she understands clients' needs in a way many lawyers do not. Contact Julie today and see the difference!

Call or email today for a FREE initial consultation! (831) 275-1002 Julie@PierceKingLaw.com

Univ of California at Los Angeles

Undergraduate Degree

Loyola Law School

Law Degree

Founding Attorney

Pierce King, P.C., a Professional Law Corporation

2012 - Current

BUSINESS LAW - Negotiating and drafting a variety of complex business contracts, including an international Private Cloud Infrastructure and Management Services Agreement and a Funding Agreement involving the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. - Forming C and S Corporations, LLCs and Partnerships, and drafting documents related thereto, such as Buy-Sell and Operating Agreements, Bylaws, Annual Meeting Minutes and Board Resolutions. ESTATE PLANNING - Drafting a variety of wills and trusts (including Revocable Living Trusts, Special Needs Trusts and Pet Trusts), Health Care Directives and Durable Powers of Attorney, as well as Grant Deeds and other documentation relating to funding trusts. - Counseling clients in Trust Administration matters - Preparing, filing and representing clients in Probate actions

Director, Contracts and Intellectual Property

CTB/McGraw-Hill LLC

2007 - 2012

Assistant General Counsel

Toshiba America

1991 - 2006

Julie was an in-house counsel for Toshiba for 15 years and handled a wide variety of matters for the corporation. She helped the Human Resources Dept. with employment matters and policy drafting, the Sales Dept. with contracts, the Finance Dept. with guaranties, and anyone else in the company who needed assistance in any area of law. She would be honored to do the same for you. Call today!

License to Practice Law

California Bar Association

BEST LAWYER IN MONTEREY COUNTY!

Monterey Herald Reader's Poll

2025

BEST LAWYER IN MONTEREY COUNTY

Monterey Herald Readers' Poll

2024

BEST LAWYER IN MONTEREY COUNTY

Monterey Herald Readers' Poll

2023

BEST LAW FIRM IN MONTEREY COUNTY

Monterey Herald Readers' Poll

2023

Volunteer of the Year

Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce

2023

IMPOWER (Businesswomen inspiring each other and helping our community)

Vice President of the Board of Directors

2021 - Current

Monterey County Bar Association

Member

2007 - Current

California State Bar  # 132813

Member

1987 - Current

Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce

Ambassador

2014 - 2024

Central Coast Human Resources Association

Member of the Board of Directors

2019 - 2022

California

Since 1987

• Free Consultation
• Credit Cards Accepted
• Rates, Retainers and Additional Information
  Pierce King, P.C. bills hourly or charges a flat fee, depending on the type of matter.

• Form Corporations, LLCs and Partnerships
• Business Transactions & Contracts
• Trusts, Wills, Powers of Attorney, Health Care Directives
• Real Estate Grant Deeds and Related Documentation

Q. Beneficiary seeking info from withholding executor, CA

July 18, 2025

A: Here is some quick terminology and information that should help.

When someone has a standard Will, the person in charge of following the terms in the Will is called an "executor."

When someone has a trust, the person in charge of doing what the trust requires and distributing assets is called a "trustee."

Executors and trustees have similar jobs, but they are not the same.

[FYI: I usually capitalize the word Will to avoid confusion with the verb "will", but normally that word is not capitalized.]

When someone has a standard Will (the type of Will most people think of), that document will say who receives the deceased person's assets. But, when someone has a trust and a Will, it is the TRUST that says who receives the assets. The trust is the main document. Wills that accompany trusts are called "pourover wills" because they do one main thing: they put into ("pour" into) the trust the deceased person's assets they left outside of their trust.

Pourover wills must be filed with the local court just like standard wills. There is no distinction between a standard will and a pourover will in this regard. But, even if someone does the right thing and files the pourover will with the court, it is highly likely that the only information people will see is something like, "I hereby leave my entire residue to my trust." Some pourover wills say more, but that is not always the case.

Now that you have some background information, you likely understand that the document people most frequently need is the trust. California law says a trustee who takes over after someone dies (called the "successor trustee") has 60 days to send a specific notice to all beneficiaries of their right to see a copy of the trust. Thereafter, the successor trustee needs to keep beneficiaries reasonably informed of what is going on. If a successor trustee is not following the law in this regard, you can send a demand letter or have a lawyer send a letter demanding that the successor trustee follow the law. If that does not work, you most likely need to bring an action in court and have a judge force the successor trustee to do their job or the judge can remove that trustee and put another in their place. Best wishes! ... Read More

Q. Is it legal for a son to execute a Power of Attorney without the elder's consent if a doctor claims incapacity?

July 15, 2025

A: If a mentally incapacitated person has estate planning documents that were never finalized, signed and notarized BEFORE a physician declared the person incapacitated, then:

(1) The only estate planning documents that MIGHT be valid are documents that were signed, notarized, and in existence before the now-incapacitated person decided to make changes to their estate plan, unless those older documents were cancelled, voided, or invalidated.

(2) If there are no estate planning documents that the now-incapacitated person signed before being declared incapacitated, no one else can sign the unsigned draft documents. For example, if a Power of Attorney was prepared for Person A but never signed in front of a notary before Person A was declared incapacitated, then Person B cannot sign Person A's Power of Attorney because that document deals with choices made by Person A, so only Person A can sign to confirm the choices made. [Again, this assumes there are no existing powers of attorney or other document giving Person B the power to sign documents on behalf of Person A.]

(3) If someone forged the signature of the incapacitated person on the unsigned draft documents, that would a crime, plus it would be hard to find a notary to sign the document if the forger cannot provide an identification proving he is who he says he is. But assuming the forger gets over those hurdles, if he uses the forged document to spend the incapacitated person's money on himself (the forger), he will be in even bigger trouble with the law because now he is stealing someone else's money and likely engaging in elder abuse. None of those are good options.

The best way to get a Power of Attorney over a person who has been declared incompetent is to go to court and have a judge award you that power under a conservatorship. Best wishes! ... Read More

Q. California estate planning for sibling with no will.

July 12, 2025

A: Anyone who wants to be sure their assets will go to a specific person or charity should contact an estate planning lawyer and set up an estate plan. Yes, it costs more than a normal grocery bill. But, when people do not plan, two things happen: (1) the assets will go to whomever the law says they will go -- even if the deceased person would not want that; and (2) the loved ones left behind are frequently forced to spend a MINIMUM of a year in court before they can inherit the assets -- and the legal fees for that court process are often 10 times higher than doing estate planning while alive! So, in the end, it is almost always less expensive to set up an estate plan than to force loved ones to go through the court process called "probate." In some California counties, such as Santa Clara County, Probate Court proceedings last a minimum of three years. So, loved ones may have to wait a long time to get their inheritance when people do no estate planning. In those cases, it is the loved ones who suffer the most due to a lack of planning.

To determine if a person's loved ones would be required to go through Probate Court before they can inherit specific assets, a lawyer would look at everything that person owns and determine an estimated total dollar value. If the dollar value of the total assets is higher than the dollar limit set by law (called the "Probate Limit"), then that person's loved ones will likely be forced to go through the Probate Court process. There are some assets that are not counted in the calculation, but I am not going to discuss each possible situation because there are far too many variables. That's why each person needs to speak with an estate planning lawyer to discuss their own unique situation.

So, tell your brother to find a lawyer he likes and get a will or a trust (depending on the type of assets he has.) You cannot do estate planning for him because the assets belong to him. If it were otherwise, anyone could take your assets away from you, which clearly isn't right. So, the owner of the assets must say what they want to do with their own assets. I hope that helps! ... Read More