).png)
South Bay Estate Planning
Estate Planning for South Bay Families in Santa Clara County
From Palo Alto and Mountain View to San Jose, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill and Gilroy, South Bay families have built careers, homes and businesses in one of the most dynamic places in the world. The Law Office of Nicole Warmerdam helps individuals, couples and families across Santa Clara County put estate plans in place that protect what they have built, keep their families out of probate court and work under California law.
​
The South Bay brings its own planning questions. Home values are among the highest in the country, many households hold company stock or own businesses, and a large share of families have parents, children or property in other countries. Our plans are built around the way South Bay families actually live.
Why South Bay estates need a thoughtful plan
High home values make probate expensive
The median home value in Santa Clara County is about $1.7 million (June 2026).
A California home owned outside a trust usually has to go through probate, where attorney and executor fees are set by statute as a percentage of the gross estate.
On a $1.7 million estate, those two fees come to about $60,000 combined, before court costs, and the process often takes more than a year.
A funded living trust lets your family skip it. ​
The small-estate limits are lower than most South Bay homes
California does allow a simpler court process for a primary residence worth up to $750,000, and simplified transfers of other property up to $208,850 (for deaths on or after April 1, 2025).
Very few South Bay homes fall under those limits.
Proposition 19 changed how family homes pass to children
Before 2021, parents could pass a home to their children and keep the low property tax base built up under Proposition 13.
Under Proposition 19, that benefit now applies only when a child moves into the family home as their primary residence, and only up to a value limit.
We review your property, your children's plans, and your options before a transfer happens.
Tech and biotech equity needs its own plan
Silicon Valley is home to some of the world's largest technology companies and thousands of startups, and many of our South Bay clients work for them.
​
For these families, wealth often goes beyond a home and a retirement account to include company stock, ownership interests and workplace benefits, each with its own rules.
We identify what you own, look at how your company documents treat it if you die or become incapacitated, and make sure the people you name can manage it when the time comes.
Estate planning services for the South Bay
-
Revocable living trusts that keep your home and accounts out of probate
-
Wills and pour-over wills, including guardianship choices for minor children
-
Powers of Attorney and Advance Health Care Directives
-
Trust funding, including deeds for Santa Clara County property
-
Proposition 19 and property tax planning for parent-child transfers
-
Planning that takes into account your company stock, ownership interests and workplace benefits
-
Trust administration and probate for families after a loss
-
Regular plan reviews after a move, marriage, birth, sale or liquidity event
-
Campbell
-
Cupertino
-
Gilroy
-
Los Altos
-
Los Altos Hills
-
Los Gatos
-
Milpitas
-
Monte Sereno
We also serve unincorporated communities including Stanford, San Martin, Alum Rock, Cambrian Park, Lexington Hills and Loyola.
-
Morgan Hill
-
Mountain View