TamaraEsq

Information about divorcing amicably and estate planning for families with young children.

08/19/2026

"She had a will. Her family still ended up in probate court for 18 months."

My good friend's mother did what most people never do: she made a will,. She also named my friend executor and thought she'd covered her family. She owned a modest home worth $900,000, and altogether her estate was worth $1.5 million.

When she died, that will sent everything into probate. (Because without a trust, your assets go through probate). Assets frozen for 18 months. Step-siblings fighting my friend the whole time, while she was still trying to grieve. Probate fees took $75,000 out of the inheritance her mother meant to leave. That family is still estranged to this day.

August is National Make a Will Month, and according to Caring.com, only 24 percent of Americans have a will at all. If you're in that group, you're ahead of most people. But if you own a home, a will is where planning starts, not where it ends. A revocable living trust would have kept my friend's family out of court entirely.

A complete plan means a trust, powers of attorney, a health care directive, and a Kids Protection Plan for parents of young kids, not just a will.

Comment PLAN and I'll send you the link to book your free 15-minute Kickstart call. Today, not someday.

07/24/2026

Small business owners: is your business protected if something happens to you?
Does your business succession plan coordinate with your estate plan? If you own a small business and these concepts sound foreign, you've got a gap that needs addressing.

Join us for a webinar on estate planning specifically for business owners hosted by the Solvang Chamber of Commerce and the City of Solvang and presented by Tamara Arnold, Esq.

Thursday, August 13th at 6:00 PM PST

All are welcome. Free for Chamber members, $25 for non-members (proceeds support local small businesses).

In this webinar, you'll learn:
- How a comprehensive estate plan keeps your business running if you die or become incapacitated
- Why your succession plan must match your estate plan, and how to build one that works
- Tax and asset protection strategies, insurance, and buy-sell agreements for a smooth transition

This is for you if you own a business (solo, partnership, or LLC), have employees, clients, or family who depend on you, and don't yet have a plan in place.

Attendees will also receive a special offer valued at $1,000.

Spots are limited, comment or send us a message to reserve yours!

Comment "business" to get the link sent straight to your DM's.

Or register at:
truceresolutions.com/events

07/12/2026

The One Big Beautiful Bill made headlines for one thing: a bigger estate tax exemption. The change that could actually reach your family trust wasn’t in the headlines at all.

It’s tucked in a footnote of a Congressional tax guide, released after the law was signed.

In plain terms, it can tax the same money twice inside a trust. And it reaches regular families, not just large estates: a trust hits the highest tax rate at about $16,000 of income, while a person doesn’t get there until around $640,000.

The trusts most affected are the ones built to take care of someone you love. If yours hasn’t been reviewed since this law passed, that review is overdue.

I help families across the Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Barbara County make sure their plans still do what they were built to do.

✅Comment TRUST or tap my bio link to book a free 15-minute Kickstart call.

05/27/2026

Her income was the same. Her savings were the same. She still lived in the same house.

Her first tax return after her husband died was not the same.

This is the widow penalty. It’s what happens when a surviving spouse shifts from married filing jointly to single filer — and the tax code treats those two situations as completely different financial lives, even when the actual numbers barely changed.

The standard deduction drops by roughly $17,000. The income tax brackets compress. More of Social Security becomes taxable. And a Medicare surcharge can arrive two years later, based on combined household income that no longer exists.

None of this is a fine. None of it is a mistake. It’s just how the tax code works — and most couples only find out about it after it’s already too late to plan around it.

The strategies that reduce this impact — Roth conversions, account restructuring, coordinated timing — require both spouses to be alive and at the table. That window matters.

If you’re in the Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara, or anywhere on the California, and you’ve never had a conversation that included your estate attorney, your CPA, and your financial advisor together — that’s the gap worth closing.

Drop WIDOW in the comments and I’ll send you the link to my new article plus a scheduling link for a free 15-minute call.

05/25/2026

The patterns you break become the life you build.

Do the work. Chase the uncomfortable. Let the beauty of what shifts—in your relationships, your decisions, your peace—reorient you. That’s the real gift. Not the destination. The transformation.

Don’t miss it.

05/23/2026

Divorce has a way of forcing you to look at yourself.

For 35 years, I avoided hiking. Hiking! And I grew up in California.

Sounds irrational until you know why: at age 13, I fell off a mountain in Big Sur. My mom and brother were critically injured because I slipped first. I carried that—the fear, the blame, the anxiety about it happening again to more people I love—into adulthood without even knowing it was there.

Then came COVID + divorce = nowhere to hide. I had to ask myself: What am I actually afraid of? Why don’t I ever want to exercise outside? Turns out I was afraid of myself. Afraid I’d slip again, any kind of slip, and I’d lose somebody I loved again. I never trusted myself.

Through quiet reflection and small outings with Harold, my adopted Covid mutt, by my side, I worked through it. Now I hike. Alone (still with Harold of course). Without the weight or fear.

This is what I see happen with my clients going through divorce too. They say “I can’t” about a thousand things. But when they get curious about why—about what they’re carrying, how they contributed to their own patterns—everything shifts.

Your next chapter isn’t waiting for you to be “fixed.” It’s waiting for you to be honest about your fears and missteps.

What’s one thing you’ve avoided? Maybe you’re still avoiding. What might be the real reason? Let me know. I’m listening.

05/10/2026

This photo was taken just after my divorce.

I remember exactly how I felt — like I was holding everything together, trying desperately to keep going, keep traditions alive, hoping nobody could tell.

My kids could tell. Kids always can.
And still — we showed up. We smiled. We held on to each other. My son used to hate taking holiday photos. That day he made the effort for me.

To every mother in a photo like this one — the ones taken in the messy middle, before you knew how it was going to turn out — this day is for you.

The ones doing school pickups and bedtime routines and insisting “everything is okay” with a cracked-open heart.

The ones giving their kids a safe and loving childhood despite the pain.

I lost my own mother too early. She never got to see me become a mother, or a lawyer, or the strong happy woman I am now. But her story taught me what unconditional love and sacrifice looks like even when life is falling apart around. I get my strength and my spirit from her.

And my kids are learning strength, unconditional love, and determination from watching me.

And yours? They’re learning it from watching you.

To all the mothers, quietly loving our kids through all of life’s scary and wonderful adventures.

Happy Mother’s Day. 🌷

Address

Solvang, CA
93463

Website

http://www.truceresolutions.com/, https://planwithtamara.com/, https://www.divorcewave.com/

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