F.T. Muegenburg, Jr.

F. Ted Muegenburg, Jr. joined Lowthorp, Richards, McMillan, Miller & Templeman, APC on October 2, 2017. He has practiced law in Ventura County since September 1964, first as a trial/litigation attorney as a Ventura County Deputy District Attorney, then in private practice with the trial and business law firm of Heily, Blasé, Ellison & Muegenburg. In October 1972, Ted elected to transition out of trial law and open his own office where he could focus on business, tax, and estate planning law. On October 1, 1986, Ted merged his estate planning practice with a local trial firm and formed Muegenburg, Norman and Dowler in Ventura. In that firm, in addition to his own client work, he was managing partner as well as being responsible for the business/estate planning department. The firm grew to 15 lawyers with a staff of 20. After nine years of carrying these multiple responsibilities, Ted longed to return to a sole practice dealing with solely estate and succession planning matters that were important to his own clients. On April 1, 1996, Ted left the firm in an amicable separation to return to a sole practice, and for years remained in the same building that he occupied with his former partners and staff.

On October 1, 2007, Ted established META law, Inc. and handled upscale estate and business succession planning and trust administration for clients whose net worth ranged from $5,000,000 to over $500,000,000. His firm’s practice involved a very close working relationship to educate the clients on a variety of approaches to the transfer of wealth to their family and community in a manner to achieve the clients’ aspirations and goals. Ted feels that he has done his job well only if the clients’ wealth is transferred in a manner that enhances the life experience of the clients’ family and improves the community in which they have an interest. The technical side of Ted’s work involves navigating complex tax and state law rules regulating trusts and the passage of assets from one generation to the next. In developing and implementing succession plans, Ted works with his clients’ other trusted advisors including their accountant, financial advisor and insurance advisor. Ted believes that only through close teamwork can the optimum results be achieved for the client.

Ted has a BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College and a law degree from Hastings College of Law, University of California. He is certified by the California State Bar as a specialist in trust, estate planning and probate law. In addition, Ted is rated as an “AV” attorney by Martindale-Hubbell, who confer in confidence with local attorneys and judges to determine other lawyers’ skill and ethical performance levels. An “AV” rating is the highest awarded and describes the lawyer as “outstanding to pre-eminent.”

Ted has lived in Ventura, California with his wife and four children since 1964. Over the years, he has been active in a leadership role in his children’s youth activities, his church, the Rotary Club of Ventura East, Community Memorial Hospital, the former Ventura County Symphony, and the Ventura County Bar Association, as the founder of the Probate and Law Section.