Law Office of Marisa Nelson

Marisa has helped me for the last 5+ years with our planning needs. She was able to help get our Illinois estate plan transitioned to be California compliant and up to date. She also brought my parent’s estate plan into this century after unwinding ancient planning techniques employed by their earlier attorney. More recently she provided me expert advice when I found myself as the executor of my aunt’s estate. She has also just assisted us with updating durable powers for my son who turned 18 at the beginning of the month - she is on top of it all! I highly recommend Marisa and her entire team.

My brother passed away in the Bay Area without a will, and his family all lives out of state. I was referred to Marisa because of her probate experience in the area. She skillfully guided us through the process of estate filing and distribution, including selling his house where her probate experience was especially value. The entire process took over a year because of COVID-related court closures. Marisa got things going as quickly as possible once the courts opened again. She was very responsive with all legal matters and even helped us find local resources needed to consolidate his belongs. She is a true professional and we give her our highest recommendation.

Marisa helped us with our estate planning. Despite having a child, we'd put it off for a number of years. We found Marisa through Yelp. She also provided references when we asked. The references were glowing, and we're glad we went with her. It was easy to communicate with her in person as well as over email. We appreciated being able to fill out the questionnaire and schedule appointments online. It made it much easier to work around my husband's busy schedule. She explained things very clearly. We only had a general idea of what we wanted to do. Marisa explained what options are common, what people typically choose in our situation (and why), and also was supportive in the areas where we wanted to do something uncommon. When we were done with the legal portion, she also followed up with a list of tasks we need to do to truly complete our estate planning (eg. make sure your guardians have a copy of the will). In fact Marisa made the process painless and relatively quick--I only feel bad that we waited so long to do it! We look forward to working with her in the future when we need changes and would definitely recommend her to others!

We needed to upgrade our estate trust established many years ago. We were referred to Marisa through a trusted colleague and were not disappointed. In a single meeting, Marisa reviewed the prior document, asked the right questions to establish what had changed and our intent going forward. We completed the online questionnaire which saved a lot of time for both of us. During the draft review of the new trust it was quite clear that this was the work of a real professional - not only had she considered our intent but it accounted for possibilities we had not anticipated. The entire process from start to finish took a month - mostly because we were traveling though Marisa was ready. One thing we found refreshing was Marisa's responsiveness. She always responded within a day and when we had a challenge finding a date on her online calendar - she just made time for us when it was convenient for us. I highly recommend Marisa for all estate related matters.

Marisa is such a responsive person. She listens to your needs carefully and answers all the questions clearly and patiently. If you need someone to help you with estate planning, Marisa is definitely the person you must speak with!