Matthew O’Donnell has been an estate planning attorney for over 30 years with offices throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. His firm, O’DONNELL & ASSOCIATES, dedicates its practice to clients who seek help with asset preservation, probate avoidance, estate tax minimization and long-term care benefits. Matt has helped more than 5,000 families plan their estates.
Although Matt began his legal career as a litigator, his charitable work with senior organizations inspired him to transform his practice to exclusively helping individuals, spouses, partners and families manage their complex and personal estate planning issues. His firm emphasizes “life planning” to prevent Court intrusion and/or control in the event of incapacity, and to protect the estates of surviving spouses, partners and children from creditors, predators and marital conflicts. He also helps special needs, disabled, and elderly clients with public-benefits planning.
Matt is certified by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization as a Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law. He is a frequent lecturer and teaches seminars on estate planning and elder law to fellow attorneys, professionals and the general public. He is a former member of the Board of Directors for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform and is in his fifteenth year as a core instructor for CANHR’s state-wide attorney elder law conferences. He recently received the William F. Taylor Memorial Award for his years of service as an attorney instructor for CANHR. He has also lectured for the California Continuing Education of the Bar, Family Caregiver Alliance, Senior Focus, Alzheimer’s Association, Kaiser Hospital and the Northern California Probate Examiners Association. Matt currently teaches at San Mateo, Canada, Skyline, and De Anza Junior Colleges. He is a contract attorney for the Family Caregivers Alliance.
Matt and his wife Ellia have three sons, rapidly approaching adulthood. Matt enjoys coaching his boys in life’s challenges and supporting their interests in sports, music and theater.