Best Real Estate Lawyers in Walnut Creek, CA

Estate planning is essentially the process of: Setting and implementing goals under which you can preserve, grow, manage, use, and enjoy your assets during your lifetime; Establishing a mechanism to protect and transfer your property to your loved ones and/or charities at the specific times and in just the manner you wish; Ensuring that your estate is not diminished unnecessarily as a result of unnecessary taxes and estate administration costs; Eliminating (for your loved ones) unnecessary inconvenience, frustration, uncertainty, delay, and court intervention in administering your estate; and Having appropriate documents prepared and executed to carry out the above. A comprehensive estate plan will generally include the following documents: Revocable Living Trust, "Pour-over" Will, Durable Power of Attorney for Management, and an Advance Healthcare Directive. Other supporting documents include an Assignment, Certification of Trust, Trust Transfer Deed(s), sample funding letters and estate planning instructions.

Creating an estate plan is a proactive way for you to help yourself achieve meaningful goals with respect to your finances, family, and lifestyle. A carefully considered, customized estate plan serves as a powerful, lasting asset preservation vehicle and succession plan. It should provide you with the comfort and happiness that comes with controlling your financial affairs and providing for your loved ones in precisely the manner you wish. According to an old adage, "if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail". The simple truth is that if you die without a will or living trust, you forgo the opportunity to choose to whom, when, and in what manner your assets are distributed. The State of California will make these determinations by applicable statutes. Furthermore, by failing to plan, or failing to do so properly, your heirs will almost surely receive significantly less as a result of unnecessary taxes and/or estate administration fees and costs.

In short, no. You absolutely do not need to be rich to justify investing in an estate plan. For anyone with gross assets of $166,250 or more (e.g. if you own a home), Probate avoidance alone is usually more than enough justification to establish a customized, comprehensive estate plan.

A myth that I am often faced with dispelling is that establishing, funding, and managing a living trust is time consuming, complicated, and inconvenient. In reality, it is not. It takes little more time to establish than a Will; it is no more complicated than a comprehensive Will; it is generally quite straightforward to fund; and it is virtually identical to managing non-trust property.