Daniel L. Sheehan

Attorney at Law

Attorney Daniel L. Sheehan is dedicated to providing highly personalized, caring and comprehensive estate planning counsel to individuals, couples, families and businesses. He is an expert in designing and implementing comprehensive estate planning strategies to help people preserve their wealth and transfer it to the ones they love in a way that protects them and promotes their financial security, while at the same time, maintaining control and minimizing costs.

As the founder of Silicon Valley Wealth Law in Menlo Park, Dan is dedicated to personal service, and as a member of Wealth Counsel, prides himself on taking estate planning to a whole new level. He likes to meet with clients for between 90 minutes and two hours, listening closely to them, learning about their families, their finances, who they love and what they own. He makes a special effort to find out their goals and values before customizing an estate plan just for them.

“Many estate plans are designed with a ‘one size fits all approach’ using do-it-yourself software kits,” he says. “I take care to make sure each plan is unique and takes into consideration the values that are important to the client. While I give the client the benefit of my legal knowledge and experience, the client is always in control of the process to design the plan and to meet his or her personal goals. I don’t just plug their names into one of six standard plans.” Dan keeps up on the latest knowledge in the field by frequent attendance at nationally recognized conferences that focus on advanced estate planning techniques and strategies and changes in the law. As a member of Wealth Counsel, he is among a select group of just 1,000 prominent estate planning attorneys from across the nation.

Dan speaks to community, business, and professional groups on basic or advanced topics related to estate, business and tax planning, and has significant experience in presenting workshops on basic or advanced estate planning.

Dan received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Management with Honors from St. Mary’s College and his law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law. He is also a contributing author to “Generations,” a comprehensive book on advanced estate planning strategies. A special area of interest to Dan is special needs planning. This stems from his personal experience with his own autistic son.

“In planning for him, I saw there was a real need for families to get information on special needs trusts, conservatorships and other areas related to special needs,’’ he says. After working on plans for his son and a few others with special needs children, he developed the interest into a specialized service. Now, a significant percentage of his estate planning cases involve special needs trusts and other services for special needs children. “This is something I am very passionate about,’’ he says.

Another area of special expertise is in business formation and exit planning, or asset protection for business owners. In all, he has been involved in designing, drafting and implementing of more than 1,000 estate plans. Dan serves clients throughout the Bay Area and Northern California, and, because of his special interest in the field, also sees clients as far away as Southern California for the designing, drafting and implementing of special needs trusts.“Estate planning comes down to an act of love,’’ Dan says. “It gives people peace of mind. It is all about protecting your family and leaving a legacy for those you love.’’