Living Trust & Estate Planning

Living Trust and Estate Planning 

• Living Trusts: A properly designed living trust allows you to manage the trust assets during your lifetime, have a plan in the event of incapacity, and arrange for your assets to be distributed to whom and at the time you choose.
• Durable Power of attorney: You can designate an agent to handle personal, financial, and business affairs in the event of incapacity.
• Advanced Health Care Directives (also known as a health care proxy): You can designate an agent to make medical decisions in the event of incapacity or specify the type of medical care that you do or do not wish to receive if you are unable to communicate your wishes.
• Providing for Children: Designating an individual as guardian for your children requires executing a will.  By executing a living trust simultaneously, you can still avoid probate.
• High Net-Worth Estate Tax Planning: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions. Is your estate plan structured to allow you to take advantage?

Estate Planning

Do you want to control your assets while you are alive and well?  Do you want to have a plan for yourself and your loved ones if you become incapacitated or disabled? Do you want your assets to pass to the right people, in the right way, at the right time, with minimum expense and red tape?  If you answered yes to the above, you need an estate plan.

Our expert estate attorneys routinely litigate disputes arising from faulty, hastily crafted, or “cookie-cutter” estate plans.  They are uniquely qualified to spot potential issues and plan around them as they implement an estate plan tailored to your needs.  After careful planning and consultation, our experienced estate litigation attorneys will present you with all your options and design and implement your estate plan giving you confidence, security, and a complete understanding of the process, at the most competitive rates.

But even the most comprehensive estate plan will require maintenance over time. As families change with births, adoptions, marriages, and divorce, and as laws change, even the most well-designed estate plan can become obsolete.  So after devising and implementing your estate plan, we can continue to provide support, maintenance, and ultimately the administration of your estate along with support for your trustees and beneficiaries.

Possible Goals of your estate plan:

• Avoiding Probate: Although a will is one way to plan for the distribution of assets, it must go through Probate, a court-supervised process that is lengthy, costly, and public.  By utilizing a trust, you can plan for the distribution of assets while maintaining your privacy and avoiding probate.
• Providing for Children: Executing a will is still the best way to designate another individual as a guardian for your children.  But if you prepare and fund a living trust simultaneously, you can still avoid having your assets and distributions become a matter of public record in Probate court.
• Planning for Incapacity: If you are temporarily or permanently incapacitated, it is essential to designate someone you trust to manage your affairs or make health care decisions on your behalf.  A durable power of attorney or Advanced Health care directive can give you the peace of mind you deserve.
• High Net-Worth Estate Tax Planning: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions. Is your estate plan structured to allow you to take advantage?

Some possible elements of your estate plan:

• Living Trusts: A properly designed and funded Living Trust is one of the most powerful estate planning tools.  A living trust allows you to manage the trust assets during your lifetime, have a plan in place in the event of incapacity, and arrange for your assets to be distributed to whom and at the time you choose.
• Durable Power of attorney: designate an agent to handle personal, financial, and business affairs in the event of incapacity.
• Advanced Health Care Directives (also known as a health care proxy): designate an agent to make medical decisions in the event of incapacity or specify the type of medical care you do or do not wish to receive if you are unable to communicate your wishes.

Do I Need a Living Trust?

If you own real estate or have children, you should strongly consider a living trust as a part of your estate plan.  In California, estates valued at $150,000 or more generally have to go through the court-supervised Probate process’s delay, hassle, and expense.  A living trust has the following benefits:

• Control over your assets: With a Living Trust, you can manage trust assets during your lifetime and have a plan for the distribution of your estate after you pass away in the manner you choose.
• Avoid Probate: Probate can take anywhere from 8 months to two years.  By placing your assets in a revocable living trust, you no longer “personally own” those assets but rather control these assets for your benefit while you are alive.  When you pass away, control of the assets instantly passes to the successor trustee for the benefit of the trust beneficiaries, avoiding the need for those assets to go to Probate.  This saves time and money for your beneficiaries.
• Plan for incapacity: By designating an individual as a successor trustee if you are incapacitated, you can decide who manages your affairs when you are unable.
• Maintain Privacy: When a will is probated, the terms, assets, and beneficiaries will become a matter of public record.  A properly designed and funded living trust does not enter the court system meaning the contents can remain private.

High Net-Worth Tax Planning: Married couples can utilize revocable living trusts to take advantage of each spouse’s federal estate tax exemption and maximize each spouse’s use of generation-skipping tax exemptions.