Estate Planning attorneys in Los Angeles

About Estate Planning matters in Los Angeles

Estate planning is the set of documents that decide who makes decisions for you if you cannot, and where your property goes when you die. The core set is small: a will, usually a revocable living trust, a durable power of attorney for finances, and an advance health care directive. Probate — the court process that administers an estate — is the other half of this practice, and much of planning exists to avoid it.

California is the reason trusts are so common here. Probate in this state is a court-supervised process whose cost is set by statute as a percentage of the gross estate, calculated before any mortgage is deducted. A modest Los Angeles home can therefore push an otherwise simple estate into a proceeding that takes many months and costs real money. That, rather than tax, is why a trust is usually recommended.

A trust that is never funded does not work. Transferring the house and retitling accounts into the trust is the step that actually keeps assets out of probate, and it is the step most often left half-done. Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance pass outside the will entirely, so they need to be checked against the plan rather than assumed to follow it.

Flat fees are common for a straightforward plan, and a firm should be able to tell you what is included — drafting, the signing appointment, and whether funding the trust and preparing the deed are part of the price or billed separately. Ask, because that is where quoted prices most often diverge.