Law Offices of Timothy D. Henry

Focus and practice areas

Estate planning and probate make up the working core of this San Jose firm. The practice covers wills, revocable living trusts, powers of attorney, and advance health care directives. On the probate side, the firm handles estate administration and trust administration. Guardianships and special needs planning also fall within its stated work.

That range points to a firm built around family assets and the steps that move them between generations. In my opinion, keeping planning and probate under one roof helps clients, because the office that drafts a trust can later help administer it. The site also names change of beneficiary and inheritance matters as areas the firm takes on. Each of those tasks tends to arrive at a different moment in a family's life, and the firm lists them together as one connected body of work.

What the core documents do

A revocable living trust holds assets during a person's lifetime and directs where they go afterward. It can be changed while the maker is alive and competent. A will covers property the trust does not, and it names guardians for any minor children. Powers of attorney let a chosen person act on financial or medical decisions when the maker cannot. Advance health care directives put treatment wishes in writing before they are needed.

Together these documents form a plan that speaks for a person when illness or death takes away the chance to speak directly. A trust aims to keep assets out of probate court. A will is a backstop for anything left outside the trust. The firm lists all of these across its planning pages. Full estate plans usually combine a trust, a will, and the two powers of attorney into one set.

How the team is built

Timothy D. Henry founded the firm and gives it his name. The attorney profiles page lists two lawyers: Timothy D. Henry and Robert Meastas. A roster this size keeps client contact close to the named attorneys. Many estate matters run for years, through drafting, updates, and later administration, so a stable pair of names can carry a family through several stages.

The firm belongs to WealthCounsel, a national membership group for estate planning lawyers. WealthCounsel membership points to shared drafting systems and continuing education used across many estate planning offices. As a reviewer, I read that as a sign the firm keeps its documents in step with a wider professional network. The site presents Henry as the founder and Meastas as an attorney with the firm.

How a plan takes shape

Estate planning usually begins with a review of what a person owns and who they want to provide for. The lawyer maps assets, family relationships, and any earlier documents. The drafting then sets out trustees, guardians, and the people who inherit. A signing meeting follows, with witnesses and a notary where the law calls for them.

Plans change over time. A marriage, a birth, a move, or a change in assets can call for an update. Powers of attorney and health directives may need refreshing as circumstances shift. A firm that also handles administration sees how plans hold up in the end, and that view can feed back into how it drafts. The firm's mix of planning and probate puts both sides of that cycle in the same office.

Administration and probate

Estate administration and trust administration are the jobs that follow a death. An executor gathers assets, pays debts, and distributes what remains under the will. A trustee does similar work under the terms of a trust, often without a court hearing. The firm handles both roles and guides the people named to carry them out.

Probate itself runs through the county court. It confirms the will, appoints the personal representative, and supervises how the estate closes. The process can take months, and it follows fixed steps set by California law. The firm assists executors and administrators through probate in Santa Clara County, where the local court oversees these filings.

Guardianship work, also listed by the firm, asks a court to name someone to care for a person who cannot manage alone. Special needs planning sets up support for a family member with a disability while protecting access to public benefits. Both areas call for careful drafting, since a small error can affect eligibility or care. The firm names them among its regular services.

When estates are contested

The firm also represents clients when estate matters turn into disputes. Its litigation work covers estate litigation, probate litigation, will litigation, and trust litigation. These are the files where relatives or beneficiaries disagree about a document or about how an estate is run. Such cases can grow tense, because money and family history sit at the same table.

A will contest raises questions about capacity, about how the document was signed, or about pressure on the person who made it. Trust disputes often center on how a trustee handles money and reporting to beneficiaries. Probate litigation moves through the same county court that oversees ordinary administration. Having planning and litigation in one office means the firm can act whether a matter stays calm or reaches a hearing.

Litigation in estate matters carries its own timeline and its own filings. Deadlines to object to a will or a trust accounting can be short. A beneficiary who suspects a problem often needs advice early, before a court closes the estate. The firm lists all four dispute types on its site, and it takes contested files alongside its quieter planning work.

Service area and reach

The office sits in San Jose and serves Santa Clara County. Named service areas include Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill, Santa Clara, Saratoga, and Sunnyvale. Probate is a county-level process, so a firm rooted in Santa Clara County files in the court where local estates are settled.

For families across the South Bay, that local base shapes how the work runs day to day. Estate files, hearing dates, and court staff stay inside one county system. A lawyer who appears often in the same probate court knows its schedule and its clerks. The firm's stated coverage tracks the cities that feed into that court, and its work stays centered on estate planning, probate, and the disputes that grow out of them.