Hayden Adams

I love being a Personal Family Lawyer or PFL because I love helping people. And we have a wealth of resources as Personal Family Lawyers to help our clients achieve their goals. The PFL community is an extraordinary group of lawyers.

I was drawn to estate planning when I was helping my aging parents dealing with their affairs. I saw what can happen when affairs are not well organized, and I saw the value a good estate plan can bring to family.

My parents had an old-fashioned marriage. My father was an engineer and handled all of their finances, paid all the bills, and managed their investments… until he got Alzheimers. My siblings and I had to go through piles of bank statements and bills and make endless phone calls to figure out what my parents had and where it was. Worse, my father heard stories about past bank failures, so he had squirreled away funds in several local banks. Eventually we were able to sort it out, but if my parents had all done estate planning the way I do it, all of their assets would have been listed in a Family Wealth Asset Inventory spreadsheet, which would have been so much easier for me and my family.

By contrast, my parents did set up a trust. They named me as a co-trustee and I was able to help them. I paid their bills and managed their affairs. And when they finally passed away, their assets passed according to the terms of the trust, which kept my family out of the probate court.

Now, I’m helping other families with their own estate planning. I think of estate planning as a gift you give to your loved ones. It’s not only about the money. It’s the gift of planning for what you want to happen when you are gone or when you can no longer make those decisions. It is such a relief for families when they know that there is a plan in place.

Prior to my practice in estate planning and probate, I litigated employment-related cases in state and federal courts, as well as arbitrations. I also conduct investigations into allegations of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation for a variety of companies. I have advised employers on policies and handbooks to ensure they are compliant with the law. I worked as a judicial clerk in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Central District of California. During law school, I completed an externship with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Criminal Division, and a judicial externship with the U.S. District Court, both in the Central District of California.

I attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where I was an editor on the Loyola Law Review. I won a prestigious award for the best Law Review Article. I found it to be true that the only person who will ever read your law review article is your mother. To be honest, I’m not sure even she read past the first two pages.

Prior to becoming an attorney, I was a professional actor, singer, and screenwriter, working in theatre, television, and film. Don’t be surprised if I break out into song or launch into a passage from Shakespeare.

I also have a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Delaware Professional Theatre Training Program and a Bachelor in Music in Voice from Indiana University.