Lucas

BACKGROUND

The Parties Robert P. Lilienthal (Robert) was a fourth generation Californian, and a longtime San Francisco community leader. He was married to Frances Newman Lilienthal

1 (Frances) for some 60 years, and they had two children, James, born in 1941, and Peter, born in 1946. Robert died in 1998, at age 84. Frances died in 2008, triggering the termination of their estate plan—and ultimately giving rise to the issue here. The Plan and the Distributions In 1984, Robert and Frances established their estate plan, prepared by attorney Alvin Pelavin, a member of Pelavin, Norberg, Harlick & Beck. The plan consisted of mirror-image wills which created a testamentary trust and some other trusts for the survivor. Mr. Pelavin left his firm to join Cooper, White & Cooper, and took the estate planning file with him. Peter Muhs, an attorney at the Cooper firm, later became the Lilienthals’ estate planning attorney. The estate plan was apparently revised from time to time, the last time in 1996. The will signed by Robert that year is not in the record, but what is in the record is the “Decree of Final Distribution on Waiver of Account and Allowing Compensation” in the Estate of Robert…