Preston Law Group, P.C.

Focus and practice areas

The firm works out of Irvine, California, and it is a boutique practice built around estate planning and probate. Two connected areas complete the roster: trust and estate litigation, and elder abuse. Each of its attorneys holds a California license.

These areas tend to arrive together across one family's life. A person plans an estate, that estate later passes through probate, and a dispute sometimes follows. Preston Law Group works at all three stages, and it adds elder abuse cases that often overlap with the same families.

What the estate planning work covers

Estate planning is the firm's core service, and the range of documents it prepares is wide. The firm drafts living trusts and joint living trusts. It also prepares special needs trusts, wills, and life insurance trusts. For clients who want to name decision-makers in advance, it prepares financial and healthcare powers of attorney, along with property transfer deeds.

A living trust holds property in a structure that passes to named beneficiaries and keeps the estate out of probate. A joint living trust holds the combined assets of a married couple in a single structure. A special needs trust supports a beneficiary who receives public benefits, so an inheritance does not cut off eligibility. These are general features of the instruments, and they explain why the firm keeps several trust types available.

Powers of attorney and deeds

The powers of attorney split into two kinds. A financial power of attorney names someone to manage money and property when the client cannot. A healthcare power of attorney names someone to make medical decisions in the same situation. Both are standard companions to a trust, and the firm prepares them alongside the core documents.

Property transfer deeds move real estate into a trust or to a new owner, a step that keeps a home out of probate. A life insurance trust holds a policy so the payout falls outside the taxable estate. These smaller mechanical pieces often decide whether a plan holds up years later.

The estate planning menu spans simple and specialized needs. Wills and powers of attorney cover what most adults need. Special needs trusts and life insurance trusts answer narrower situations. A client can plan a straightforward estate or a complicated one with the same firm.

How the team is built

Taylor Preston and Sophia R. Preston founded the firm as a husband and wife team. Both carry the title of founding attorney, and both are licensed in California. Maya Maleszewski is the associate attorney and is also California licensed.

Taylor Preston earned his Juris Doctorate from Arizona Summit Law School in 2017 and a bachelor's degree in business law from Arizona State University in 2014. His earlier work spans several fields. He handled creditor's rights litigation for banks at a previous firm, and he has worked at an estate planning firm and at a personal injury and medical malpractice firm. As a reviewer, I read that mix as useful preparation for a practice that joins planning with courtroom disputes.

Madison Preston runs the office as operations manager, a staff role. The firm's attorney roster names three lawyers: Taylor Preston, Sophia R. Preston, and Maya Maleszewski. The site states each attorney's California license without listing bar admission years.

Probate and trust administration

Probate is the firm's second main area, and the firm covers both its routine and contested sides. Preston Law Group takes probate administration and trust administration, the practical tasks of settling an estate. It also handles probate litigation and advises clients on probate avoidance.

Probate administration moves an estate through the court after a death. An executor files the will, notifies creditors, inventories the assets, and distributes what remains to the heirs. Cases run faster when the paperwork is clean, which is one reason planning and probate fit in the same office.

Probate avoidance is planning done ahead of time so an estate skips the court process. Funded living trusts, beneficiary designations, and joint ownership all support that goal. Trust administration is the work that follows a death when a trust already exists: the trustee gathers assets, pays debts, and distributes shares under the trust's terms.

Litigation and elder protection

When an estate turns contentious, the firm litigates. Its trust and estate litigation covers will contests, trust contests, undue influence claims, and trustee removal. These are the disputes that reach a probate judge.

Undue influence claims argue that pressure on a vulnerable person shaped a will or a trust against that person's real wishes. Trustee removal asks a court to replace a trustee who has mismanaged assets or acted against the beneficiaries. Will and trust contests challenge the validity of the document itself. Each rests on records, witnesses, and the timeline of how a document came to be signed.

Elder abuse is a further area of the firm's work. Preston Law Group handles cases of physical abuse and financial abuse, and it files for elder abuse restraining orders. A restraining order of this kind asks a court to bar contact or financial access, and it can run alongside a civil claim. In my opinion, pairing elder abuse work with trust litigation makes sense, because financial abuse of an older person often shows up first as a suspicious change to a trust or a will.

Where the firm works

Preston Law Group works out of Irvine and takes clients across four Southern California counties: Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles. That footprint reaches much of the region's population.

Probate and trust rules run at the state level, so a firm licensed in California can carry a matter through any of those four county courts. The counties hold a large share of the state's residents and a wide range of estate sizes. In my opinion, that regional reach suits a small team that keeps its subject matter narrow.

The site does not state a founding year. Its public roster lists three California attorneys and one operations manager, and its named work runs across estate planning, probate, trust and estate litigation, and elder abuse.