Are you in an unmarried same-sex domestic partnership? Have you and your partner created a will, consulted an estate planning attorney, or even considered estate planning? If not, it’s crucial to start sooner rather than later. Proper planning protects both you and your partner.
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.
Do you worry about what will happen to your pet when you pass away? You can create a “Pet Trust” as part of your estate plan to protect your pet.
Proper estate planning by the LGBTQ community will protect assets and make sure medical and financial decisions are made by the right person.
California law says, “No one can take advantage of his or her own wrongdoing”. The California Probate Code punishes those who commit murder under the California Slayer Statute.
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!