Jonathan D. Alexander

Jonathan Alexander is the owner of the Law Office of Jonathan D. Alexander, Esq. He helps individuals, families, and business owners pass their hard-earned property to their loved ones using innovative estate planning techniques.

Jonathan was born and raised in Idaho. He earned his juris doctor from the University of Idaho College of Law and then completed a judicial clerkship in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2005, he moved to California and began his law career as a civil litigator and then General Counsel (corporate attorney) for a health insurance company.

Motivated by a desire to start a law firm that would make an important contribution to his clients’ lives, Jonathan launched his estate planning practice. As an estate planning attorney, Jonathan has the privilege to help his clients take critical action to safeguard their assets and pass them to the next generation, protect minor and special needs children, and to help clients create legacies that can sustain their families for generations to come.

Jonathan is truly passionate about estate planning and helping his clients. He knows that each case is as unique as the families that contact him for assistance. He understands that estate planning is not merely preparing for death but planning for a prosperous life, making sure that each client’s desires are met and establishing protections for unwelcome events.

Jonathan is a member of Wealth Counsel, a nationwide association of estate planning professionals, and leverages its industry leading technology to draft estate plans that incorporate some of the most sophisticated and modern estate planning practices in the business.

Jonathan is recognized by his peers and fellow Orange County professionals as an authority on estate planning. He is a frequent guest lecturer often partnering with other local luminaries of the accounting, real estate, and financial services industries to provide educational seminars about estate planning and changes in the law. Jonathan also maintains a blog where he provides his clients and subscribers estate planning tips and updates about developments in estate planning law.

Estate Planning

Jonathan specializes in estate planning matters including drafting living trusts, durable powers of attorney for property, advanced health care directives, and pour-over wills.

The estate plans that Jonathan drafts for his clients enable them to:

• Maintain control over assets while alive and ensure they will be distributed according to their wishes when they pass away.
• Prepare for incapacity.
• Protect their life savings against the high cost of long-term care.
• Protect gifts to surviving spouses and heirs from creditors and predators
• Minimize taxes on their estate.
• Pass their values and work ethic to future generations.
• Protect their special needs children.

Newlywed Planning

Jonathan helps newlywed couples put the foundational documents in place to protect one another. He also meets with all clients at least every three years to ensure that their estate plan is up to date. This is especially important with newlyweds because of the rapid pace of change in their including welcoming their children or moving into their first home.

Asset Protection

All individuals who work in high-risk professions including doctors, dentists, lawyers, real estate developers, and business owners should meet with a qualified asset protection attorney. It may just be matter of time before you find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit. Jonathan helps individuals and business owners in these professions establish legal structures that minimize their exposure to frivolous lawsuits. The key step in asset protection is starting years before any threat of litigation.

Special Needs Planning

Children with special needs are often enrolled in means-tested governmental benefits. Receiving an inheritance without special needs planning can destroy their eligibility for these critical benefits. Jonathan helps his clients with special needs children draft estate plans that allow parents to provide gifts while preserving government program eligibility.

Business Succession

Jonathan has years of experience counseling business clients about a variety of corporate matters including business formation, dissolution, acquisition, and succession. Jonathan helps his business owner clients ensure that they have the proper documentation in place to best position themselves for a liquidity or succession event. He also has the expertise to counsel business owners about the thorny issues that arise when estate planning and business succession issues collide especially in the context of closely held family businesses.

Estate Administration

Successor Trustees are often unprepared for the duties thrust upon them when a parent passes. Jonathan helps his successor trustee clients perform their duties under a trust agreement. This requires, among other things, marshaling trust assets, debts, notifying beneficiaries and maintaining a detailed log of all actions and dollars spent. The successor trustee is also typically charged with distributing trust gifts to beneficiaries in a timely manner and providing an accurate, annual accounting of trust expenditures. Jonathan advises his clients about their duties as successor trustees to ensure they have complied with their obligations to named beneficiaries.

Non-Legal Activities

When he is away from the office, Jonathan enjoys spending time with his wife, Amber and their three children Lola, Margaux, and Liam.