The Hayes Law Firm

Focus and practice areas

Estate planning and elder law form the base of the firm's work, run from an office in South Pasadena, California. That work covers wills, both simple and complex, along with living trusts and irrevocable trusts. The firm also prepares powers of attorney, which name who can act for a client on money or medical matters if that person later becomes unable to act. Estate plans usually combine several of these tools at once.

A living trust holds title to a person's assets during life and passes them on at death without a court process. A pour-over will catches anything left outside the trust. A durable power of attorney covers financial choices during a period of incapacity. The firm names each of these among its services, which points to plans built from the standard parts of the field.

The firm pairs asset protection with the planning work, aimed at older clients who want to guard what they have built. In my opinion, the useful signal here is range: one office that can draft a simple will can also set up an irrevocable trust when a family's situation calls for it. That saves clients from moving between firms as their needs grow.

Who runs the firm

William Hayes runs the firm and concentrates on helping clients avoid probate and provide for their families. He earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles. His work covers estate and tax planning for both individuals and businesses across Los Angeles County.

Hayes belongs to the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, a national membership group for lawyers who work in this area. He also volunteers for the Los Angeles Superior Court Conservatorship Program. That role connects to one of the harder corners of elder law, where a court appoints someone to manage the affairs of an adult who can no longer handle them.

The tax side of the work

Estate and tax planning overlap when an estate is large enough to raise federal tax questions, or when gifts made during life change the picture. The tools include trusts that move assets out of a taxable estate and lifetime gifts kept within annual limits. William Hayes's stated focus on both estate and tax planning suggests he folds these questions into the plan itself.

Probate and trust administration

Two of the firm's services come into play after someone dies. Probate is the court-supervised process that gathers a person's assets, pays debts, and passes what remains to the heirs. Trust administration does similar work outside court, following the terms of a trust the person set up while alive.

Both jobs carry paperwork, deadlines, and duties owed to beneficiaries. An executor or trustee has to inventory property, notify creditors, handle tax filings, and account for what they distribute. Families often arrive at these tasks while grieving, which is part of why a firm that also drafted the plan can move faster through them.

As a reviewer, I note that the firm handles both the planning and the administration side. A trust written years earlier reads more clearly to the office that drafted it. That continuity is a practical reason clients return to the same firm after a death in the family.

Why timelines vary

A formal California probate can run many months, since the court sets hearing dates and creditors get a fixed window to make claims. Estates that fall under the state's small-estate limits can use shorter procedures. Whether probate applies at all often depends on how the assets were titled and whether a living trust already holds them. This is one reason the planning stage shapes how much work the administration stage brings.

Elder law, Medi-Cal, and conservatorship

Elder law reaches past documents into the practical questions families face as a relative ages. The firm lists Medi-Cal planning, which involves arranging assets so a person may qualify for state help with long-term care while keeping what the rules allow. This work matters most when nursing care costs threaten to drain a lifetime of savings.

Guardianship and conservatorship appear on the same list of services. A conservatorship petition goes before a probate court, which reviews the proposed conservator and sets how much authority to grant over finances or personal care. Guardianship follows a similar route for a minor whose parent cannot serve. William Hayes's volunteer work with the county conservatorship program puts him close to how these cases proceed.

Planning before a crisis

Medi-Cal planning works well with lead time, because transfers made close to an application can affect eligibility under the program's rules. Families who plan early have more room to arrange things in an orderly way. The firm's place in the county conservatorship program also means it sees what happens when no plan exists, and a court has to step in.

Planning for particular families

The firm names services aimed at situations a standard will can miss. Special needs planning sets up a trust that supports a disabled beneficiary while protecting their eligibility for public benefits. LGBTQ estate planning and planning for family-owned businesses appear on the same list, along with pet planning for owners who want an animal cared for after they are gone.

Incapacity planning ties these together. It covers the documents and instructions that take effect while a client is alive but unable to make decisions. In my opinion, a firm that spells out these narrower categories is telling clients it takes intake past the basic will.

How clients first meet the firm

The firm offers free educational seminars and webinars on estate planning. Several clients describe attending one of these sessions before deciding to have the firm prepare a family trust. That path gives people a low-pressure way to learn the vocabulary before they commit to a plan.

A recurring note in client accounts is the way Hayes explains options, including what a person can handle alone and what the firm would take on. Clients also mention prompt contact after a first inquiry. The firm's client base is spread across the greater Los Angeles region, and The Hayes Law Firm serves people in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, and the surrounding communities from its South Pasadena office.

What the seminars cover

The sessions the firm runs cover the basics of wills, trusts, and probate for a general audience. For people new to the subject, that kind of talk lays out the choices before any decision about hiring a lawyer. Clients who move ahead after a seminar tend to arrive with a clearer idea of the documents they need.