After a decedent's own children, grandchildren are next in line to receive inheritances from a decedent's estate.

Grandchildren usually figure as alternative beneficiaries who inherit only if their parent predeceases their grandparent.

Grandchildren, however, can sometimes be primary beneficiaries, such as when the grandparent raised the grandchild or wants to provide for the grandchild because the grandchild's own parent will not. Regardless gifts to grandchildren require planning.

If the grandchild is a minor then planning is more complicated. Minors cannot receive assets directly in their own name.

Without planning in place a court petition to appoint a guardian is required. The assets are then managed by the guardian for the benefit of the minor. As the guardianship proceedings are costly it makes sense to plan and so avoid them.

If the gift involves a sum of cash that is say less than $50,000 then a Child Uniform Transfer to Minors Act ("CUTMA") account managed by a trusted adult could be used to receive the gift.

Alternatively the same money could be deposited into a College Education Savings Plan (such as a so-called 529 Plan) when the donor's intent is to provide educational assistance.

When the gift to a minor grandchild is sizable, or involves real property, however, a trust is often in order. The trust can manage assets for more than one beneficial grandchild, which reduces total administration costs.

Typically each grandchild begins with an equal separate share which is then adjusted for later distributions and expenses.

Unlike a CUTMA account the trust does not have to terminate once the grandchild reaches 25 years of age. CUTMA accounts make sense for smaller size monetary gifts which don't warrant the expense of a trust.

A trust may continue for the lifetime of the beneficiary; up to ninety (90) years under California law. It may also provide for alternative death beneficiaries in case a primary beneficiary dies before receiving their full distribution.

Most importantly a trust can be drafted to carry out the wishes of the grantor and yet allow the trustee enough discretion to have flexibility to deal with the circumstances.

If the grandchild is an adult at time of distribution then they can receive their gift outright. Nonetheless that may not always be best.

Do they have creditor issues, receive needs based government benefits, can manage the assets involved, or have any substance abuse problems? These are all circumstances when an appropriately drafted trust for the adult grandchild's benefit may be employed.

Unfortunately, some grandchildren become estranged from their grandparents, who may decide to disinherit them. 

In those cases, the grandparent's estate planning documents will both expressly disinherit such grandchildren and also provide for other alternative beneficiaries.

No matter what, grandchildren cannot be ignored when doing one's estate planning. By law they are heirs to their grandparent's estate if the grandparent's child has died but the grandparent is survived by the deceased child's own children.

Thus, regardless of whether one is motivated by love and concern or otherwise how to treat one's grandchildren must be addressed.

Dennis A. Fordham, Attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235. His Web site is www.DennisFordhamLaw.com .

HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – A Saturday afternoon fire damaged a Hidden Valley Lake home but the resident and three pets were rescued thanks to the fast action of firefighters.

South Lake County Fire and Cal Fire units responded to the fire in the 18000 block of Spyglass Road, which was reported at approximately 1:17 p.m. Saturday, according to a Cal Fire report.

Fire was reported to be coming from the garage, Cal Fire said. Fire units arrived at scene to find a working fire with power lines down.

Cal Fire said one victim was rescued from the structure and transported to St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake for treatment of injuries. Three cats also were rescued from the home.

Resources assigned to the incident included one volunteer company, one water tender, five engine companies and 18 total personnel, according to the Cal Fire report. Pacific Gas and Electric also responded to address the downed power issues.

Half of the structure was destroyed, and Cal Fire estimated the loss at $200,000, with $80,000 worth of damage prevented.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and shortly after 3 p.m. Cal Fire said crews remained on scene to conduct overhaul and finish extinguishing the structure.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – A 3.0-magnitude earthquake was reported near Upper Lake early Saturday afternoon.

The quake occurred at 12:05 p.m., according to the US Geological Survey.

The US Geological Survey said the epicenter was 12 miles north northeast of Upper Lake at a depth of 4.3 miles.

No shake reports had been submitted on the quake as of 4 p.m.

The epicenter of Saturday's quake is close to those of a 3.1-magnitude quake that occurred Dec. 5 and what's believed to be the biggest quake in more than a century, a 5.1-magnitude temblor that occurred Aug. 9, as Lake County News has reported.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week the United States Department of Labor reported that it was offering an additional $4 million to help with the cleanup and recovery efforts for the 2015 Valley and Butte fires.

The Valley fire burned primarily in Lake County beginning on Sept. 12, 2015, resulting in four confirmed fatalities, destroying nearly 2,000 structures – of which almost 1,300 were homes – and burning more than 76,000 acres.

It started just three days after the Butte fire was ignited in Amador and Calaveras counties. The Butte fire burned nearly 71,000 acres and destroyed more than 900 structures, including more than 500 homes.

Both fire incidents were included in a presidential major disaster declaration from President Barack Obama on Sept. 22, 2015.

The U.S. Department of Labor subsequently approved a National Dislocated Worker Grant award for up to $11 million, with $2 million released initially on Oct. 23, 2015, to provide disaster relief employment to help with cleanup and recovery efforts following the fires.

On Aug. 22, the department awarded another increment of $2 million for the continuation of disaster relief employment.

Then, this week, the department said it will give another $4 million incremental award to the California Employment Development Department to continue the cleanup and recovery effort, bringing the total funds awarded to date for this project to $8 million.

The Department of Labor said the grant funding has served approximately 550 workers.

Congressman John Garamendi, whose district is next to the affected areas, thanked the Department of Labor for providing the additional recovery assistance.
 
“The effects last long after the blazes are extinguished,” said Congressman Garamendi. “People who have lost their homes and businesses often need continued help to get back on their feet. I’m very pleased that the Department of Labor has provided $4 million in continued funding to help people who were displaced by wildfires get back to work. This additional grant will make a big difference to the people who need it most.”
 
According to a Department of Labor statement, Dislocated Worker Grants are supported by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014.

The grants temporarily expand the service capacity of dislocated worker training and employment programs at the state and local levels by providing funding assistance in response to large, unexpected economic events which cause significant job losses, the agency said.

The Department of Labor said the grants generally provide resources to states and local workforce investment boards to reemploy laid-off workers quickly by offering training to increase occupational skills.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A little girl in Clearlake and a little boy in Lakeport are the first two babies born in Lake County in 2017.

The first baby born in Lake County in 2017, Aaliyah Rose Shoop, was still comfortably in utero as the new year arrived on Sunday.

It wasn’t until Tuesday that Lake County’s New Year’s baby made her arrival at 8:26 a.m. at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake to happy parents Billy Dean Shoop and Lindsey Marie Kenton.
 
Little Aaliyah was delivered by Dr. Kimberly Fordham and Women’s Care Unit nurse Josephine Lutz, RN. She was a healthy 7 pounds, 7 ounces.

“Each new baby is a reason for celebration, but welcoming a new life at the beginning of a new year is special for our entire team,” said Al Hansen, RN, director of Surgery and Women’s Care at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake. “All year long, we are privileged to provide every family in our community with a healthy, happy beginning for their newborn.”

The hospital gave the family a number of gifts for Aaliyah.

 
In Lakeport, Sutter Lakeside Hospital's first baby of the year was a boy.
 
Baby Leo Torres was born to Jessica Johns and Armando Torres at 4:50 a.m. on Friday at the Sutter Lakeside Family Birth Center. Leo measured 21 inches and weighed in at 8 pounds, 13 ounces.
 
“His older brother Aiden is thrilled,” said Johns. “Leo is the first baby to join our family in a while, so we’re excited.”
 
The Family Birth Center provided a welcome basket to the family, which included a swaddling blanket, a visual monitoring system and a backseat mirror to allow a clear view of the baby’s face while driving.
 
All babies born in the Family Birth Center also receive a year-long subscription to the Imagination Library as part of an initiative to boost literacy. The family will receive one age appropriate book each month to encourage reading at home.

NASA has selected a science mission that will allow astronomers to explore, for the first time, the hidden details of some of the most extreme and exotic astronomical objects, such as stellar and supermassive black holes, neutron stars and pulsars.

Objects such as black holes can heat surrounding gases to more than a million degrees.

The high-energy X-ray radiation from this gas can be polarized – vibrating in a particular direction.

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission will fly three space telescopes with cameras capable of measuring the polarization of these cosmic X-rays, allowing scientists to answer fundamental questions about these turbulent and extreme environments where gravitational, electric and magnetic fields are at their limits.

“We cannot directly image what’s going on near objects like black holes and neutron stars, but studying the polarization of X-rays emitted from their surrounding environments reveals the physics of these enigmatic objects,” said Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA has a great history of launching observatories in the Astrophysics Explorers Program with new and unique observational capabilities. IXPE will open a new window on the universe for astronomers to peer through. Today, we can only guess what we will find.”

NASA's Astrophysics Explorers Program requested proposals for new missions in September 2014. Fourteen proposals were submitted, and three mission concepts were selected for additional review by a panel of agency and external scientists. NASA determined the IXPE proposal provided the best science potential and most feasible development plan.

The mission, slated for launch in 2020, will cost $188 million. This figure includes the cost of the launch vehicle and post-launch operations and data analysis. Principal Investigator Martin Weisskopf of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will lead the mission.

Ball Aerospace in Broomfield, Colo., will provide the spacecraft and mission integration. The Italian Space Agency will contribute the polarization sensitive X-ray detectors, which were developed in Italy.

NASA's Explorers Program provides frequent, low-cost access to space using principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to the agency’s astrophysics and heliophysics programs.

The program has launched more than 90 missions, including Explorer 1 in 1958, which discovered the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth, and the Cosmic Background Explorer mission, which led to a Nobel Prize. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the Explorers Program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

For more information about the Explorers program, visit http://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov .