Living Trusts

Protect Your Assets with the Help of an Orange County, California Living Trust Attorney

Los Angeles – Riverside – San Bernardino – Orange County – Anaheim-California

Living Trust Basics

Let our highly experienced California living trust attorney help you protect your assets and save you and your family from high costs in the long run.

In California, a Living Trust is very often the preferred Estate Plan for many people. The most common type of Living Trust in California is one that is revocable, which means that you have the power to amend and revoke the trust.

The power of revocation and amendment are important for clients in an ever changing world where financial and family circumstances continually change.

Living Trusts vs. Wills

Living Trusts and Wills are the primary Estate Planning tools as both allow you to decide who receives your money, property, and assets after you pass away, and who will manage, settle, and distribute your estate after you are gone.

The primary advantage of a Living Trust over a Will is that a Living Trust avoids the costly and timely necessity of putting the family through a Probate Administration. Avoiding Probate saves the family thousands of dollars in the long run.

Living Trust in California is settled more quickly than the average Probate, and a Living Trust allows families to carry out Estate Planning in private. Probate cases are a public record, and are open to anyone to inspect.

Flexibility

Living Trusts can incorporate special features to handle specific family dynamics. These special approaches can include Special Needs Trusts for the care of a disabled child or family member; Pet Trusts; customized provisions for a “Blended Family” for second marriages that include children from prior marriages, adopted children, step-children, etc.; and “Spendthrift” provisions which protect a child’s inheritance from creditors, predators, and from themselves.

Helpful During Periods of Incapacity

If you are the trustee of your own living trust and you become incapacitated, your chosen successor trustee can manage the trust’s assets for you, very similar to an agent with power of attorney.

Estate Tax Planning

Estate and Gift Taxation issues can be avoided or minimized through the use of custom tailored Living Trust in California.

Counseling and Advice: The Key Ingredient

The key ingredient in the crafting of a Living Trust or Family Trust is the counseling and legal advice I give each and every client as their personal lawyer.

I frequently counsel people who have experienced high-pressure sales pitches from non-lawyer “financial planners” purporting to offer living trusts. These trust schemes hide the real goal, that is, to sell dubious and expensive annuity and insurance products; and more often than not, result in the client buying a useless “botched trust”.

Call our office today if you need a California living trust attorney directly at 1-714-385-0044 to schedule a consultation or email me.