California Living Trust Attorneys

Secure Your Legacy with an Experienced Living Trust Lawyer

If you have come to a point in your life where you realize you need to start planning for the future of your estate, you might be considering a living trust. Understanding how a living trust works and the two options for a living trust are important before you proceed with the creation of a trust. A California living trust lawyer from our firm can help you to understand how a living trust works and determine if it is the best option for you.

Why Hire a Living Trust Attorney? The Probate Factor

Many people hire a living trust attorney specifically to avoid California probate. Probate is the lengthy, costly, and public court process for settling an estate. By establishing a living trust, your living trust lawyer ensures your assets bypass this process, saving your family time, money, and stress while preserving their privacy.

When considering setting up a living trust it’s important to understand the difference between a revocable living trust and an irrevocable living trust.

• Revocable Living Trust: A revocable living trust is also referred to as a family trust. As the grantor of a living trust you may alter the trust by adding or removing assets and changing beneficiaries during your lifetime, making it important to consult with a lawyer regarding the specific assets to include in a revocable trust. Upon your death the assets of your trust will be preserved and protected for your beneficiaries and at the same time probate will be avoided.
• Irrevocable Living Trust: In an irrevocable living trust, as the grantor, once you have gifted the assets to the trust you no longer have control over those assets and the trust may not be altered.

Can Probate Be Avoided?

If probate sounds like a headache, you may wonder if there are any ways to avoid it. There are some tools a person can use to either avoid probate or minimize the impact of probate.

Estate Planning

Creating a solid estate plan is the first step to helping your family avoid probate. Things like creating a living trust document and placing assets in it that are later distributed to the beneficiaries of a trust can help get that person’s assets into the hands of their surviving loved ones faster than probate.

Estate planning must be done well in advance of a person’s death to reduce the impact of probate. If you are an heir and you are wondering how to avoid probate, then estate planning is likely not the answer you are looking for.

A Smaller Estate

If the total value of the decedent’s assets is under $166,250 and the decedent died with a valid will, you will likely be able to avoid probate and should be able to get your inheritance faster if you are a beneficiary of the will.

Joint Tenancy

If you are the spouse of the decedent, then you are likely afraid of how property that was jointly owned by both of you will be seen by the court. The good news is that assets and properties that were under both your and your spouse’s name will automatically pass to your ownership without having to go through probate.

The same is true if you and your spouse jointly owned a business together. After your spouse dies, you will automatically assume ownership of that business without having to wait for probate.

Payable On Death Designations

If the decedent had bank accounts with a payable on death (POD) designation, then the bank will allow the transfer of the accounts and its assets directly to the designated beneficiaries upon the account holder’s death. This process bypasses the probate process entirely and makes those assets immediately available after the decedent’s death.

If you are hoping to speed up or skip the probate process, it may be worth checking whether or not any of your loved one’s accounts have a payable-on-death clause.

If you are interested in setting up either a revocable living trust or an irrevocable living trust, it is important to have a skilled and experienced estate planning attorney from our firm to assist you. We can help you understand the process, make decisions, and achieve your estate planning goals.