A California Companion for the Course in Wills, Trusts, and Estates, 2025-2026: Selected Cases and Statutes

With this edition, we welcome a new co-author, Diane Klein Kemker, currently teaching wills and trusts as an adjunct professor of law at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law and Loyola Law School (Los Angeles). Professor Kemker has taken over updating this edition, and has focused on supplementing the Table of Statutes to enhance the book's ease of use.

A CALIFORNIA COMPANION is for professors teaching students who may take the California Bar Exam. The California Probate Code is different from the Uniform Probate Code and the "national" law presented in casebooks. Inheritance rights of parents and children in adoption, nonmarital, and stepfamily situations, disqualified transferees, consequences of financial elder abuse, extension of wills rules to nonprobate transfers, and special time limits on bringing various claims are some of the areas in which California has distinct rules. The Companion includes all the statutes required for the California Bar Exam, as well as California cases and statutes that give context to the bar statutes, reflect recent legislative changes, or illustrate areas where California law is different from "national" law. Although the California Bar Exam tests the common law of trusts, California trust law-including the rights of creditors in trust assets and rights of trust beneficiaries to information-is included for comparative purposes.

A CALIFORNIA COMPANION is designed for ease of use. Bar statutes are clearly marked and all statutes have been given explanatory captions. Principal cases are severely edited for easy classroom use. The detailed Table of Contents lists all included statutes with identifying captions, and all principal cases are preceded by a short description identifying the subject matter.

The Table of Cases lists more than 52 principal cases and 136 note cases. The Table of Statutes groups statutes into Bar Statutes, other sections of the Probate Code, sections of the Family Code, the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, and the Welfare and Institutions Code. The Companion also includes Instructions for the California Bar Exam that list the Bar Statutes that may be examined.

Organization of A California Companion tracks Dukeminier & Sitkoff, Wills, Trusts & Estates (11th ed. 2022 and the forthcoming 12th ed. 2026), but it can easily be used with other casebooks because the Table of Contents clearly shows the subject matter of each section.