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Estate Planning
Estate planning is about protecting the people you care about and preserving the assets you have worked hard to build. A complete plan reduces uncertainty, avoids unnecessary cost, and gives the next generation a clear path.
What the firm assists with
The documents, the upkeep, and the tax planning behind them.
Core documents
The plan most California families need.
- Revocable living trusts
- Wills
- Powers of attorney
- Advance health care directives
Keeping a plan current
Life changes. The documents should follow.
- Trust amendments and restatements
- Trust administration guidance
- Reviews after a marriage, birth, death, sale or move
Tax-aware planning
Where the accounting and LL.M. background does its work.
- Estate tax planning
- Gift tax planning
- Asset protection planning
- Business succession planning
How it starts
A first meeting covers three things.
Your people
Who depends on you, who should decide for you if you cannot, and who should receive what.
Your property
What you own, how it is titled, what it is worth, and what would happen to it under California law today with no plan at all.
Your plan
A recommendation in plain language, the fee, and the timeline. Documents are drafted, reviewed with you, and signed properly.
Common questions
Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?
In California the answer usually turns on what you own and how it is titled. Real property and larger estates often point toward a revocable living trust, which can keep the estate out of probate. Smaller estates may not need one. The first meeting is where that question gets answered for your facts.
I already have a plan. Does it need attention?
Plans age. A change in family, a new home, a business, a move between states, or a change in the tax law can each leave a document doing something you no longer want. An amendment or restatement is often a small job compared with fixing the problem later.
What does trust administration involve?
When a trust becomes irrevocable, the successor trustee has duties: notices, inventories, tax filings, distributions. The firm guides trustees through those steps so the administration is done correctly and the trustee is protected.
Questions
Estate planning questions
Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?
A will directs who receives your property, but it does not avoid probate. A revocable living trust generally does. Which one fits depends on what you own, whether you own real property, whether minor children or a beneficiary with special needs are involved, and how much you care about privacy. Many plans use both.
Does a living trust avoid probate in California?
Assets properly transferred into a living trust during your lifetime pass outside probate. The common failure is a trust that was signed but never funded, so the house stayed in the individual's name and went through probate anyway. Funding is the part that matters, and it is the part most often left undone.
What happens if I die without a will in California?
California's intestacy rules decide, not you. Community property generally passes to the surviving spouse. Separate property is divided between the spouse and other relatives in proportions that depend on who survives you. The court also appoints the administrator and, if there are minor children, is involved in guardianship. It is rarely the outcome people would have chosen.
How often should an estate plan be reviewed?
Review it after any marriage, divorce, birth, death, move to or from California, sale or purchase of real property, or significant change in what you own. Absent any of those, every three to five years is sensible, because the law changes even when your life does not.
Can an estate plan reduce taxes?
Sometimes, and the estate tax is only part of it. The income tax basis your beneficiaries inherit, how retirement accounts are left, and how a business interest passes often matter more to a California family than the federal estate tax does. This is the point at which estate planning and tax planning stop being separate questions.
These answers are general information about California law, not legal advice, and every matter turns on its own facts. Ask about your situation.
Schedule a consultation
Start the plan while it is easy.
A conversation about your family, your property and your goals costs nothing. The recommendation, the fee and the timeline come in writing before any work begins.