Your Advance Health Care Directive allows you to make important health care decisions and designate an agent to carry out your wishes in the event you are incapacitated. A "Living Will" and "Power of Attorney for Health Care" are similar documents used in other states, but in California, the Advance Health Care Directive (“AHCD”) is the estate planning document that is used to let your wishes regarding medical decisions be known.
A living trust is an estate planning document you can create during your lifetime. Assets are transferred to your living trust (such as your real property, bank accounts, and brokerage accounts). While you are alive, your trustee (who is usually you) will have complete control over all trust assets and can move the assets in and out of your living trust as needed.
How often should a living trust be updated? I recommend you review your living trust every three to five years. This gives you the opportunity to look at it with fresh eyes. In my experience, when clients have a living trust prepared, the binder with the trust documents is set on a shelf and rarely looked at again.
One of the biggest decisions you will make when creating your Living Trust is choosing who will be your Trustee. Learn more about the factors you should consider when choosing a competent trustee of your estate.
Unlike financial assets, which can generally be divided easily among your children or grand-children, tangible personal property, like a wedding ring, is unique. Families fight over everything from ownership of a valuable painting, to a grandfather clock, to Dad’s gun collection, to who gets Grandma’s wedding ring.
The word “probate” often causes a severely negative reaction. For many people — especially those with large estates — estate planning attorneys recommend keeping property out of probate whenever possible. The probate system was ultimately established to protect property, and protect those people entitled to inherit it. In a few cases, probate may even work to an advantage.
It is very important to avoid probate. You may think that a Last Will avoids probate after you pass away – but it does not. Everyone pictures a scene out of a movie where the executor reads the Will to the family, and then everyone gets their inheritance. It is never that simple!
Should you create a last will or a living trust? In determining if you should create a last will or a living trust, it is important to understand what happens after you pass away, including the legal considerations, the role of your executor, and the distribution of your specific assets.
A durable power of attorney allows your property and financial affairs to be managed the way you want in the event you become incapacitated.
One of the biggest decisions you will make when creating your living trust is choosing your successor trustee. I always tell my clients it is important to select a successor trustee they count on, as that person will ultimately be responsible for protecting and distributing your assets to your loved ones.