About Us

Franza Giffen  is an attorney whose practice focuses exclusively on fiduciary services.  She earned her Juris Doctor degree from Golden Gate University and is a licensed real estate broker, giving her a well rounded background for selling, renovating and dealing with all matters having to do with the real estate many of her clients own.  For the past 30 years she has also been a probate referee for Contra Costa County.  Early in her career she wrote wills and trusts for her clients but as the years passed, her clients grew older and called her with more and more personal needs.  She acted under powers of attorney to help them with finances and their health care.  Soon she was called upon to act as a Trustee, which also grew to involve a wider breadth of service to her clients.  Having such close and intimate contact with her clients gave more meaning to her role as she continued to expand her services.  Being able to visit her clients in their home, listen to their concerns and take care of them was more meaningful and rewarding to her than the limits of drafting wills and trusts and much more fun!    EMAIL 

Interview of Franza Giffen on Fiduciary Services in Lawyer Monthly►

Dixie Miner is our office manager as well as a care manager for several clients.  Her background includes services to elders, project and team management for several small businesses, general office management, marketing, resource research and assisting with probate matters.  Dixie has implemented many office systems to insure a smoothly running and highly efficient environment.      EMAIL

Lillan Stone brings her Scandinavian work ethic of precision and quality to our team. She has over 35 years of bookkeeping and accounting experience, including a long term as the Financial Controller at a large San Francisco law firm. Currently she manages the accounting and preparation for tax returns and assists in general business and office matters.    EMAIL

Kathleen Newsom, CLPF #934, NCG, MBA is a Midwesterner who has called San Francisco her home for over 20 years. She holds a BA and MA in French Language and earned her MBA at the University of San Francisco, McLaren School of Business. Kathleen spent many years as a marketing manager in the wine & spirits world. She was responsible for managing multi-million dollar budgets for major, international brands. Kate is a licensed fiduciary and National Certified Guardian. She is an active member of the East Bay Professional Fiduciary Association (PFAC). Kate specializes in trust and estate administration throughout the Bay Area.   EMAIL

Rebecca Guyette: Whenever families have needed assistance, Rebecca has helped guide them through difficult life transitions for over twenty-five years as a family law attorney, mediator, parenting consultant, custody evaluator and expert witness. She also holds the distinction as one of the first trained Collaborative Law attorneys in the world, where settlement, not litigation, is paramount to maintaining important family relationships.

Helping families resolve difficult property issues, including valuing closely held businesses, dividing stock options, tracing non-marital assets, as well as preparing cash flow analyses for financial support, is something Rebecca can assist with when needed.

Rebecca’s clients also have benefited from her real estate experience. She owns both commercial and residential rental properties and is familiar with every aspect of a real estate transactions and has served as general contractor.

Rebecca recently relocated to San Francisco to work as a Professional Fiduciary. She is mentored by, and will succeed, acclaimed fiduciary and attorney, Franza Giffen, Esquire, of Giffen Fiduciary Services, who has been a Professional Fiduciary serving the Bay Area as a successor trustee, guardian, conservator, and probate referee for more than twenty years.

Team Work  Our clients’ needs involve tax matters, family law issues, Will contests, real estate sales and services, facilitation with medical and psychological investigations and ordering  reports when necessary; acting as a liaison with doctors and medical personnel as well as court matters. Attorneys, enrolled agents, certified fraud examiners, realtors, general contractors, nurse practitioners, and gerontologists also make up the team members of Giffen Fiduciary Services. It truly takes a village to take over another person’s life and ensure that they have the best quality of life possible for them.

Affiliations: Professional Fiduciary Association of California (PFAC), California State Bar, The Bar Association of San Francisco, California Probate Referee Association, President East Bay PFAC Chapter 2016-17 Website