Estate Planning Attorney
A farm girl from the Valley
Jonette was born and raised in the Central Valley, in a Portuguese farm family with roots that run through Corcoran, Hanford, and the farming communities in between. Her family is big enough that she still meets cousins she never knew she had. Sometimes they walk into her office as clients before either of them figures it out.
She never left the farm life behind, either. She and her husband raised their two sons in Hanford, on a place with a barn full of chickens, goats, and pigs, and she loves being woken up by her rooster. She'll tell you that herself. So when a farm family sits across from her to talk about the land and the generations who worked it, she already understands, because that's the world she grew up in.
How she works
Most people are nervous the first time they meet with an attorney. Jonette knows it, so before any legal talk happens she looks for the connection. Maybe it's the town you grew up in, or the school your kids went to. Half the time it turns out you know some of the same people. Once you're comfortable, you'll say what you really want, and that matters, because an estate plan only works when it reflects your true intentions.
From there, she goes into what she calls educator mode. She explains every document in plain English: what it does, why it matters, and what happens if you don't have it. She's sat across from professionals whose jargon made her head spin, and she refuses to do that to her own clients. You leave understanding your plan, not just signing it.
When you hire this firm, you get Jonette. There is no associate who takes over your file after the first meeting. The person you meet on day one is the same person who walks you through your final signature.
"I'm the first one to say: you don't need me. If your estate is simple, I'll tell you. I'm not going to sell you documents you don't need. I've built my reputation on that."
Jonette M. Montgomery
Honest answers, even when they cost her business
Ask around and you'll hear the same story: Jonette tells people when they don't need her. If you don't own a home and your accounts have named beneficiaries, she'll tell you a simple will may be enough, and in some cases you may not need anything at all. If a matter is simple enough to handle through the courthouse self-help center, she'll point you there and save you the fees. She won't sell a trust to somebody who only needs a will, and she won't create work just to bill for it.
That honesty tends to come back around. Families remember the attorney who told them the truth, and when something bigger comes up later, she's usually the one they call.
Planning that's realistic about family
After twenty years of administering trusts, and litigating them when it comes to that, Jonette designs estate plans around how families really behave. If a plan is setting your kids up for a fight, she'll respectfully push back and tell you why.
She's watched two kids who don't get along get named co-trustees, and the lawsuit starts almost the day the parents are gone. She's watched a house left to the kids "50-50" with no plan for what happens next. She tells clients all the time that you should not own property with your siblings. She's also seen parents try to run the family business from the grave with layers of rules, and seen plans kept secret until it was too late for the kids to hear the reasons from Mom and Dad directly. Each of those roads tends to end in a courtroom, and she'd rather help you pick a different one while you still can.
Her view on family conflict is simple. When parents are open with their children about what they've decided and why, there's very little left to fight over. How can you argue with what Mom and Dad wanted, when they told you themselves?
On litigation
Jonette avoids litigation whenever she can. She'll tell you plainly that it's stressful, that people underestimate how stressful, and that too often the only people who win are the attorneys. She will never encourage a lawsuit you don't need, and she will never guarantee a result, because no honest litigator can.
That doesn't mean she rolls over. When a trustee is getting bullied by siblings and their lawyers, or a beneficiary is being cut out of what they're owed, she stands up for them and doesn't back down. Some of her closest client relationships started with somebody who had never once been able to stand up to their own family, and finally had someone in their corner.
She's been where you are
Jonette will be the first to admit that estate planning is hard to sit down and do, because she and her husband put off part of their own for five years. They couldn't agree on who would raise their boys if something happened to them both. He wanted his brother, she wanted her sister, and they sat at a stalemate until he bought a Harley. She told him she wasn't getting on the back of that bike until their estate plan was signed. It got signed.
If you've been putting this off, she understands. Young parents don't want to imagine someone else raising their kids, and nobody likes planning for their own death. She's had clients finally do this in their 90s, or after a heart attack, or on the way into surgery. She'd rather help you do it now, calmly, while every decision is still yours to make.
Credentials & background
- Attorney at law, State Bar of California, License #231145
- More than 20 years of estate planning, trust administration, probate, and estate litigation experience in the Central Valley
- Practice areas: estate planning, trust administration, probate, and estate litigation
- Serving Hanford, Corcoran, Lemoore, Avenal, Tulare, and communities throughout Kings and Tulare County
- Law Office of Jonette M. Montgomery, A Professional Corporation. 109 S Douty Street, Hanford, CA 93230