About Us
About Us
At the Pasadena Law Group, we believe that the most powerful planning tool to protect our clients and their assets is the human ear. By listening closely to what you are concerned about and hope to achieve, we gain the understanding necessary to design and implement a plan to meet all of your needs. We also take the time to explain your options in clear, easy-to understand language, so that you fully understand how your plan will work and why.
In essence, we strive to establish a close personal relationship with you and serve as your “counselors for life.” This is why, while we would like to assist everyone who contacts us, we limit our practice to those seeking comprehensive planning rather than a cookie-cutter approach. We don’t just crank out planning documents, we design and implement comprehensive plans. If this sounds like what you’re looking for, we welcome the opportunity to meet you so we can get to know one another.
Jan Copley
Jan has been a lawyer for more than thirty years. She founded her own firm in 1993, built it into a profitable law practice with a sterling reputation, and successfully sold her business at the beginning of 2010. She then started working as a Certified Practice Advisor for Atticus, Inc., coaching successful lawyers who want to make more money and take more time off.
However, after coaching lawyers for two years, Jan realized that she missed working with her clients as a lawyer and resumed practicing law at the beginning of 2013. She is now the principal of the Pasadena Law Group.
Jan limits her law practice to estate planning, business planning, elder law, asset protection planning, and trust administration. She prides herself on taking a genuine interest in her clients, giving them her individualized attention, and providing legal services specifically designed to meet her clients’ needs.
Teaching
- “Shielding Your Nest Egg” for Geiger Law Firm Estate Planning Symposium in May 2013
- “Life After the Law: What’s Your Exit Strategy?” for WealthCounsel in May 2013
- “Update on Planning or, What Do I Do Now?” for the National Academy of Engineering in February 2013
- “How to Hire (and Train) Support Staff for a Successful Law Practice” for the Ultimate Estate Planner in August 2012
- “How to Get Paid a Fair Price for What You Do” for the Ultimate Estate Planner in January 2012
- “How I Built a Successful Estate Planning Practice and Sold it for a Tidy Sum” for ElderLaw Answers in October 2011
- “People and Money: Keys to a Successful Practice” for the WealthCounsel Southern California Forum in June 2011
- “How to Get Paid a Fair Price for What You Do” for WealthCounsel in June 2011
- With Jeffrey R. Matsen, “How to Build a Solo Practitioner Estate Planning Practice” in May and June 2011
- “How I Built a Profitable Estate Planning Practice and Sold it for a Tidy Sum” to WealthCounsel’s “Planning for the Generations” in August 2010
- With Brad Wiewel, “How Community Property Law Affects You and Your Practice, Even Though You Think it Doesn’t” for the Southern California Institute in January 2009
- With Mark Merenda and Kimberly Lee, “The Power of Image for Wealth Advisors” for the Southern California Institute in January 2009
- With Barry W. Finkelstein, “Basics of Marketing to New Clients and Collaborative Referral Sources” for the California Forum in June 2005
- With Mark Merenda, “Scripting the Client Experience” for the Southern California Institute in January 2005
- With David K. Cahoone, “Community Property Considerations with Insurance Planning” to the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys in July 2003
- With Brad Wiewel, “Community Property for Common Law Lawyers” to the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys in May 2003
- With David Harrison, “Planning for the Significantly Younger Spouse” to the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys in October 2002
- With Stephen Mancini, The Uniform Acts — What Are They? What Am I Supposed to Do With Them? Why Should I Bother?” to the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys in October 2000
- With W. Vito Lanuti, “Opportunities in Estate Planning for CPAs” as a continuing education instructor for California State University, Long Beach and California State University, Los Angeles in 1999 and 2000
- Why I’m Not Crazy to Have Returned to Practicing Law, ElderLaw Report (March 2017)
- Jan was named Top Attorney in 2013, 2015 & 2016 by Pasadena Magazine
- Jan is a contributing author to Business Succession Planning: Strategies for California Estate Planners and Business Attorneys (CEB 2013) and wrote the materials in Chapter 17 on succession planning for medical practices
- How to Get Paid a Fair Price for What You Do, The ElderLaw Report (June 2012)
- The Case for Law Practice Coaching: Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own, The ElderLaw Report (March 2012)
- How I Built a Successful Estate Planning Practice and Sold it for a Tidy Sum, The ElderLaw Report (July/August 2011)
- Closing My Father’s Medical Practice — Lessons Learned, Southern California Physician 8 (May 2005)
Sona A. Tatiyants
The Pasadena Law Group has an of counsel relationship with Sona A. Tatiyants, of LynkLaw, Inc. “Of counsel” means that Jan and Sona share their experiences and wisdom with each other and that Jan and Sona are available to help each other with client issues. We also cover for each other if one of us is not available.
Sona bases her law practice in Glendale. She is warm, wonderful, and knowledgeable, and I’m sure you’ll like her a lot.
Sona has been featured in the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
To learn more about Sona, visit her website.
Jan Copley
Jan has been a lawyer for more than thirty years. She founded her own firm in 1993, built it into a profitable law practice with a sterling reputation, and successfully sold her business at the beginning of 2010. She then started working as a Certified Practice Advisor for Atticus, Inc., coaching successful lawyers who want to make more money and take more time off.
However, after coaching lawyers for two years, Jan realized that she missed working with her clients as a lawyer and resumed practicing law at the beginning of 2013. She is now the principal of the Pasadena Law Group.
Jan limits her law practice to estate planning, business planning, elder law, asset protection planning, and trust administration. She prides herself on taking a genuine interest in her clients, giving them her individualized attention, and providing legal services specifically designed to meet her clients’ needs.
Teaching
- “Shielding Your Nest Egg” for Geiger Law Firm Estate Planning Symposium in May 2013
- “Life After the Law: What’s Your Exit Strategy?” for WealthCounsel in May 2013
- “Update on Planning or, What Do I Do Now?” for the National Academy of Engineering in February 2013
- “How to Hire (and Train) Support Staff for a Successful Law Practice” for the Ultimate Estate Planner in August 2012
- “How to Get Paid a Fair Price for What You Do” for the Ultimate Estate Planner in January 2012
- “How I Built a Successful Estate Planning Practice and Sold it for a Tidy Sum” for ElderLaw Answers in October 2011
- “People and Money: Keys to a Successful Practice” for the WealthCounsel Southern California Forum in June 2011
- “How to Get Paid a Fair Price for What You Do” for WealthCounsel in June 2011
- With Jeffrey R. Matsen, “How to Build a Solo Practitioner Estate Planning Practice” in May and June 2011
- “How I Built a Profitable Estate Planning Practice and Sold it for a Tidy Sum” to WealthCounsel’s “Planning for the Generations” in August 2010
- With Brad Wiewel, “How Community Property Law Affects You and Your Practice, Even Though You Think it Doesn’t” for the Southern California Institute in January 2009
- With Mark Merenda and Kimberly Lee, “The Power of Image for Wealth Advisors” for the Southern California Institute in January 2009
- With Barry W. Finkelstein, “Basics of Marketing to New Clients and Collaborative Referral Sources” for the California Forum in June 2005
- With Mark Merenda, “Scripting the Client Experience” for the Southern California Institute in January 2005
- With David K. Cahoone, “Community Property Considerations with Insurance Planning” to the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys in July 2003
- With Brad Wiewel, “Community Property for Common Law Lawyers” to the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys in May 2003
- With David Harrison, “Planning for the Significantly Younger Spouse” to the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys in October 2002
- With Stephen Mancini, The Uniform Acts — What Are They? What Am I Supposed to Do With Them? Why Should I Bother?” to the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys in October 2000
- With W. Vito Lanuti, “Opportunities in Estate Planning for CPAs” as a continuing education instructor for California State University, Long Beach and California State University, Los Angeles in 1999 and 2000
- Why I’m Not Crazy to Have Returned to Practicing Law, ElderLaw Report (March 2017)
- Jan was named Top Attorney in 2013, 2015 & 2016 by Pasadena Magazine
- Jan is a contributing author to Business Succession Planning: Strategies for California Estate Planners and Business Attorneys (CEB 2013) and wrote the materials in Chapter 17 on succession planning for medical practices
- How to Get Paid a Fair Price for What You Do, The ElderLaw Report (June 2012)
- The Case for Law Practice Coaching: Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own, The ElderLaw Report (March 2012)
- How I Built a Successful Estate Planning Practice and Sold it for a Tidy Sum, The ElderLaw Report (July/August 2011)
- Closing My Father’s Medical Practice — Lessons Learned, Southern California Physician 8 (May 2005)
Sona A. Tatiyants
The Pasadena Law Group has an of counsel relationship with Sona A. Tatiyants, of LynkLaw, Inc. “Of counsel” means that Jan and Sona share their experiences and wisdom with each other and that Jan and Sona are available to help each other with client issues. We also cover for each other if one of us is not available.
Sona bases her law practice in Glendale. She is warm, wonderful, and knowledgeable, and I’m sure you’ll like her a lot.
Sona has been featured in the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
To learn more about Sona, visit her website.
Real Estate Protection Presentation – PART 1
Lou Steinhauer: Hello, everybody. Why don’t we get started?
First, I want to congratulate you all for being here. More than 50 percent of the people in the United States never do anything like this. They don’t do any planning. They don’t get educated. They don’t do anything like this. You ought to be complimented on taking this big step.
I want you to relax tonight. You will learn a lot. You will have fun. This should be fun. This is not going to be tense or intimidating, and you will learn things.
Let me introduce myself first. My name is Lou Steinhauer. Call me Lou. I have two roles in our firm. The first one is, I’m the computer guy, and the second is, I’m Jan’s husband. I can tell people, the relative importance shifts depending on what’s happening.
The rest of our team, let me tell you who they are. We have three attorneys in our office. There’s Jan Copley. There’s Elsie Wind, who is sitting at the back table. You probably saw her when you came in. There’s David Nelson, who’s over there.
We have Julio Delick, who is our Director of Client Services. We have Anna Lisa Quinn, who’s also a Director of Client Services. And we have Lillet Parsadanian, who’s also at the back table. She’s our director of client relations. She’s the one you’ve probably talked to on the phone. She’s the one who will be communicating directly most of the time. That’s who we are.
I used to introduce Jan by telling all her qualifications ‑‑ where she went to law school, when she passed the bar, and so on. I decided that didn’t make any sense. I’m going to give you a first advice. When you go see an attorney, make sure they went to law school, and make sure they passed the bar. I’m assuming that every attorney you see is going to be like that.
What makes Jan different is [indecipherable 2:13] . We believe in educating our clients because the more you know, the better educated you are, the better you can make decisions that are unique to you. It’s not cookie cutter. It’s a unique decision that is determined by your circumstances.
Jan is nationally known. She and Elsie and David are constantly going to seminars around the country. As you can imagine, the law is constantly changing. They have to keep up on the latest. Jan also speaks at these seminars. Literally, attorneys will fly across the country to attend a seminar to hear Jan speak about something. She is very well‑qualified.
We specialize, our firm does, in estate planning, business planning, and real estate. In California, as you all know, real estate is significant. You can’t get away from it. Today you’re going to learn about some of the pros and cons of real estate, how to protect your investment in real estate, and how to do some shielding from creditors and to keep all your assets, real estate and other assets, safe.
In your handout is a confidential information sheet. Let me pull mine out to show you. Looks like this. At the top is some information about you, like your name and address. We appreciate if you fill this out. We take this seriously because it lets us know what you’re interested in and what we can improve on.
Also, as we go through the presentation, there are some boxes in the middle. We’ll ask you, if you’re interested in more information, to check a box, and we will send you additional information on that particular subject.
As we’re speaking, please ask questions if you think of something. That makes it more interactive, and it lets us know what your interests are.
A couple of administrative things. If you’re parked in a lot, do not worry about the validation. We have taken care of it. There is no cost for the validation or for getting your car back. Please turn off your cell phones, if you would. Make sure they’re off. You may have noticed we are recording tonight’s session. So, well, we are. [laughs]
OK, I think we’ll get started. I’d like to introduce my wonderful wife and turn it over to her.
Jan Copley: Thank you, sweetheart. Everything Lou says about me is completely unbiased.
[laughter]Lou: I’m totally objective.
Jan: He’s totally objective, so you can believe everything he just said. I would like to add to it by saying that one of the things that we pride ourselves on in our office is providing customized planning for our clients and addressing our clients’ concerns.
I thought I would start the process this evening by asking people why they’re here, so I can make sure that I can answer their questions as we go along this evening. Do we have a brave volunteer to start? If we don’t, I’m going to start picking on people. Who’s going to be the first person to go. All right, yes, sir.
Audience Member: I’d like to learn more about the probate process.
Jan: The question was, “I’d like to learn more about probate.” What is it? What’s involved? Is that…? OK. Probate. What is it? Why is it bad?
Real Estate Protection Presentation – PART 2
Woman 1: OK. OK and then Don, you had a question?
Don: Yes. I’m also interested in probate but more in the trust…
Woman 1: OK.
Don: ..how to handle trust issues?
Woman 1: OK.
Don: And real estate is part of it.
Woman 1: OK. So Don is asking the question about trust. And it’s sort of, let me see if I can paraphrase for you. What’s a trust? Why should you have one? How does it work with real estate? Does that all make sense? OK. Next? Alright. Somebody’s going to. Thank you!
Woman 2: We are interested in assets protection.
Woman 1: You’re interested in asset protection. And when you say asset protection are you looking at like protection from claims of creditors, or from taxes, or both.
Woman 2: Both are true.
Woman 1: OK. Asset protection, creditors and taxes. Alright! Thank you.
Woman 3: Is there any way to shield your real estate from the humongous California franchise, IRS, taxes upon a sale other than rollover?
Woman 1: OK. The question was is there any way to protect your real estate from the taxes that are result on the gain in the growth when you sell the property. That’s called capital gains tax planning. So, we will be talking about that. OK?
Man 1: What’s the pro’s and con’s of TIC?
Woman 1: Tenant and common? Like Tenant and common ownership? The question was: What are the pro’s and con’s of TIC? TIC means Tenant in Common, which is a means, a way of owning property. And are you asking like owning tenants in common with other investors like a pool. OK. I’ll get to you in just a second. Yes sir!
Man 2: How about the differences of LLC’s and S corporation and C corporation that you relate to asset protection and trust planning?
Woman 1: The question was tell me about ‑‑ and I hope you don’t mind if I paraphrase ‑‑ tell me a little bit about the differences between an S corporation, a C corporation, an LLC, a family partnership, in the context of asset protection planning.
In the legal world, that’s called entity planning, so I hope you don’t mind if I just put that down here at shorthand for that.
OK, one more? Yes, sir.
Man 3: I wanted to find out the difference between community property and joint tenancy ownership relating to the capital gain tax.
Woman 1: The question was you want to find out what the difference is between community property and joint tenancy ownership as far as capital gains go?
Man 3: Uh‑huh.
Woman 1: OK, OK. What’s the best form of title? [short pause] OK, and then Greg, you get the last question.
Man 4: What about 1031 exchanges?
Woman 1: The question was what about 1031 exchanges? We will be addressing all of these issues this evening, and I’m going to keep this in front of me to make sure that I talk about all of them as we go through tonight’s presentation.
Man 4: The seminar was great. Very informative, very concise, easy for people to understand, so that was very good. We’re going to come and see her, OK?
Woman 4: Absolutely excellent. Both of the presenters were concise, knowledgeable, extremely knowledgeable, and they communicated well.
Man 5: It was very informative and very interesting. She covered a lot of topics, and we got a lot of information. Thank you.
Man 6: I found the seminar very interesting and picked up a lot of new information regarding real estate. It’s been very informative, and I did appreciate coming in and attending tonight. Thank you.
Woman 2: Oh, yeah, it was wonderful. Especially they talked about the community with the title as community property, that the base can start up to 100 percent. It saves a lot of capital gains. This is the most important part that I would like to…
Creating Lasting Legacies
Jan Copley: Hi. My name is Jan Copley. I live and practice in Pasadena, California. I have handled hundreds of estate plans, creating them, settling them when somebody comes sick or somebody dies. In the course of doing that, I have managed to save families hundreds of thousands of dollars in estate taxes. I’ve also managed to help people save their homes and their retirement benefits from going to pay for long‑term medical care in a convalescent hospital.
Very often when I tell people I do estate planning, I get the response of, “I don’t have an estate.” I thought I give you three short stories today about the emotional benefits of estate planning for both the people who die and for the survivors. The first story I have is a couple of clients came in, a husband and wife. The husband was the more dominant partner. It was very, very clear that his chief goal was to make sure that his wife was cared for both financially and that the right people were doing it.
Over time, she developed dementia, and he became ill. The family tells me that in his last days he expressed great satisfaction and peace by knowing that his wife was care for and that the right people were looking after her. That’s exactly the case. After he died, she had tremendous care from those people for the rest of her life. The second story I want to tell is the story for the benefit of a survivor.
I was working with a woman, and we spent quite a bit of time working on her advanced healthcare directive, including the instructions in case she was finally ill or fatally ill. As it turns out, she did have an aneurysm and she died. The daughter came in. Oh, a couple of weeks after her mother died and said, “I thank you so much for putting together that advanced healthcare directive with the clear instructions. Because it told me what my mother wanted, when she couldn’t communicate it. I made the decisions that I needed to make, and I am at peace with the decisions that I needed to make.”
So tremendous benefit for the survivor. The third story I wanted to tell is of a husband and wife. They came in to see me. He was working. She was staying at home taking care of their three children. At the time that they came to see me, one child was in junior high, one was in elementary school, and one was a baby.
About 10 years later, he died quite suddenly. Because of the good estate planning that we did in coordination with his financial planner, now his eldest child is a senior at Caltech on full scholarship. The other two children are going to expensive private schools in Pasadena and receiving tremendous education. Widow has been able to continue to stay at home and be a full‑time mom staying in her home and has a stream of income for the rest of her life, which is sufficient to support her for the rest of her life.
In that case I know that that’s what he wanted. The estate planning was such that they were able to maintain their lifestyles and meet their goals for themselves and their children. I hope that if you give me the glib pass off that, “Oh, I don’t have an estate,” maybe these emotional stories will be helpful to you. Thanks very much.
