Estate planning
A plan your family can actually use.
Most people arrive having meant to do this for a year. What they want first is to be told plainly what they need, and what it costs to have it.
In short
The documents that decide who acts for you and who receives what, written to be used rather than filed.
An estate plan is a set of instructions and a container to hold them. The instructions say who acts for you if you cannot act, and who receives what when you die. The container is a trust, and it only works for what has actually been put inside it.
We draft the documents and we do the transfers that fund them. A plan that is signed but not funded is a document, not a plan, and that distinction is the one that costs families the most.
What this covers
Five things we do here
Revocable living trusts
The core document for most families here. Avoids probate, keeps the terms private, and can be amended as circumstances change.
Wills, powers of attorney and directives
A pour-over will, a durable power of attorney, and an advance health care directive naming who decides when you cannot.
Funding the trust
Signing the trust creates the container. Funding is the work of putting your property inside it, and it is the step most often skipped.
Blended families and second marriages
Two histories, two sets of children, and a plan that has to be a decision rather than an accident.
Planning for minor children
Who raises them, who holds the money, and at what age they receive it.
Read about this
Five questions we are asked about estate planning
- At what age should my children inherit?Eighteen is the default, it is rarely the answer, and choosing something else is an ordinary decision rather than a judgement on your children.
- How do I provide for my spouse without disinheriting my children?In a second marriage the two goals genuinely compete, and a plan that does not choose between them chooses by accident.
- What documents do I need besides a living trust?Three documents sit alongside the trust, and they are the ones most likely to be needed first.
- I signed my trust years ago. Is my house actually in it?Signing the trust created the container. Whether anything was put inside it is a separate question with a checkable answer.
- Do I need a living trust if I already have a will?A will decides who receives what. It does not decide whether a court has to be involved in handing it over.
Who does this work
Elsewhere
The other practice areas
- Trust administrationWhat happens after. The notices, valuations, transfers and accountings a successor trustee is required to produce.
- ProbateThe court proceeding that moves property when there was no trust, or when the trust did not own it.
- Property transfersDeeds, retitling and the reassessment questions that follow a change in ownership of California real property.
- Business successionWhere the estate plan meets the operating agreement, and the two have to be made to agree.
- Incapacity and special needsWho decides when you cannot, and how to provide for someone whose benefits an outright gift would put at risk.