California Estate Planning Lawyer

– About Estate Planning

Estate planning includes planning for the protection of your loved ones after you are gone and for your own protection if you become incapacitated for any reason while you are alive. If you have young children, you can nominate guardians and anticipate their needs if you were to pass before they are mature enough to care for themselves and manage their own finances.

Depending on your goals, we can craft a complete plan for you that includes a trust, Will, power of attorney, healthcare directive, and more, or we can prepare a few documents that may be missing or stale in your current plan. You are in the driver’s seat!

Why Everyone Needs an Estate Plan

Everyone can benefit from an estate plan, no matter their level of wealth. Even a high school graduate about to go off to college or people with minimal assets can benefit from a simple Will, power of attorney, and health care directive. A Will allows the person to clarify whom he wishes to receive his possessions if he were to die, and the power of attorney and health care directive allow him to select the people he trusts to manage his finances and medical decisions if he is unable to do so for any reason.

Anyone owning a home, anyone with assets valued over $150,000, and married couples should have a complete estate plan that includes a trust. Having a complete estate plan will allow your assets to pass without probate. While a probate is expensive, time consuming, and public, a trust administration is relatively inexpensive, requires far less time than a probate, and is completely private. Married couples should have a property agreement that clarifies what is community property and separate property in the marriage, and their estate plan should articulate what will happen to a deceased spouse’s property after death. If you have children, you can nominate your children’s guardian in your estate plan, and you can create optional sub-trusts for them if both parents were to die while a child is still young.

Documents in Most Estate Plans

• living trust
• certification of trust
• pourover Will
• power of attorney
• health care directive and HIPAA
• assignment of assets
• trust transfer deed
• property agreement (married couples)

How Can We Help?

If you need assistance with estate planning, contact us at (925) 266-3449 or info@fidelitaslaw.com, or you may complete our contact form. Somebody will reach out to you within 24 hours.