Joe Ferrucci is a partner in the firm’s trusts and estates group.  He has more than 15 years of experience in estate planning and trust administration.  Joe has a collaborative approach.  He aims to provide each client with practical information and guidance to make informed decisions, whether they are planning for the future, facing a health problem, or recovering from the loss of a loved one. 

His estate planning experience includes:

  • Preparing living trusts, wills, powers of attorney, and advance health care directives.

  • Advising clients on estate tax, gift tax, and GST tax.

  • Advising clients on estate planning for community property and separate property assets.

  • Preparing complex estate plans for HNW estates, including irrevocable gift and GST trusts, life insurance trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, and charitable trusts. 

  • Preparing estate plans for cross-border clients, between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. 

  • Preparing estate plans for LGBT individuals and couples, unmarried couples, and registered domestic partners. 

  • Preparing first-party and third-party special needs trusts; advising clients on pooled special needs trusts.

Additional experience includes:

  • Advising individual trustees and on trust administration following the incapacity or death of a loved one, including the administration of HNW estates.

  • Representing private professional fiduciaries acting as trustees.

  • Preparing fiduciary accountings.

  • Preparing estate and gift tax returns; advising on valuation issues and other tax reporting positions. 

  • Preparing property co-ownership agreements, promissory notes, and deeds; advising on Prop. 13 transfers of real property and reassessment exclusions.

  • Handling entity formation for investment properties.

  • Preparing California Attorney General filings for charitable trusts.

  • Filing successful probate court petitions for trust modification, trustee succession, confirmation of trustee actions, confirmation of trust assets (Heggstad).

  • Successfully handling probate estate administration matters in San Francisco, Alameda, and Marin counties.

  • Representing a client on a contested conservatorship and trust administration matter, including extensive settlement negotiations and mediation.

  • Representing trust and estate beneficiaries.

Joe and his partner Trip split their time between San Francisco and Santa Rosa.  They enjoy exploring the Sonoma County Regional Parks with their dog Molly.  Joe serves on the vestry of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Santa Rosa, where he is also Chair of the Development Committee. 

Practice Areas:

  • Estate Planning

  • Trust Administration

  • Estate and Gift Tax

  • International Estate Planning

  • Probate and Conservatorship

Education:

  • JD, UC Law San Francisco (formerly Hastings)

  • LLM Taxation, Golden Gate University

  • BA, Yale University

Memberships:

  • State Bar of California

  • California Lawyers Association, Trusts and Estates Section

  • Bar Association of San Francisco

  • ProVisors, Oakland 2

  • Sonoma County Bar Association

  • Redwood Empire Estate Planning Council

  • AIDS Legal Referral Panel (ALRP), Panel Attorney

Presentations:

  • Mill Valley Library Foundation, October 16, 2024, “California Estate Planning”