A Living Trust is the best possible way to hold assets in California so they can pass to your heirs without a great deal of expense or delay.
A Trust is a legal entity which should be drafted by an attorney experienced in Estate and Trust as these documents could end up in Probate Court. This is what you want to avoid for your heirs with petition being presented to revise or clarify the meaning or to be attacked by heirs you actually wanted to exclude.
The entity can hold assets for weeks or years – to be distributed to your heirs per your wishes. Done correctly, an average family in North County San Diego can save $30.000 to $40.000 in fees and years of time as well as avoiding the agony of Probate.
Most attorneys who are qualified to practice in this area include several ancillary documents as well. The attorney who prepares the Trust normally prepares a deed and preliminary change of ownership form and advises the client about filing the deed.
The ancillary documents provided along with the Trust include an Abstract of Trust which summarizes the essentials of the Trust to use with financial institutions to move assets to the Trust. Also included are a Pour-Over Will which handles assets accidentally left out, an Assignment of Personal Property, a Power of Attorney for financial dealings (i.e. to place properties into the Trust – i.e. bank accounts, stocks, real estate that may have been excluded while the client is still alive) and a Community Property Agreement for married couples.
Additionally, if the individual or couple has children, I always do a Nomination of Guardian to designate who would raise any minor children.
Perhaps the most important ancillary document is the Health Care Directive which has numerous choices including choices in their Living Will, Medical Preferences, a Hippa Addendum, and personal desires concerning last wishes, feelings about organ donation and arrangements for burial or cremation as well as any other concerns a client may have.
You don’t want the Court deciding how your medical situations should be handled. You want to express your own wishes and decide which individual in your circle of loved ones should make decisions for you if you cannot make them for yourself.
Contact Marilyn Shea's office at (800) 396-0555 or (760) 721-0600 to discuss how a Living Trust could benefit your family.