El Dorado Estate Planning Lawyer

What Should I Include in an Estate Plan?

For maximum protection, an estate plan should include the following documents:

• • Last Will and Testament
    The most basic estate planning document, a valid will, can serve as your voice after you pass away and ensure your wishes are faithfully carried out. In a will, you name the beneficiaries you want to inherit portions of your estate, specify the assets and property they should receive, and select an executor who will be responsible for settling your remaining financial affairs and transferring inheritances to beneficiaries. You can also appoint a personal guardian to care for your minor children and select someone you trust to manage their inheritance until they reach adulthood.To be considered valid, your will must adhere to state and federal laws. Because a will is a legal document, you must be of sound mind when you draft and sign it. Of sound mind means you are mentally competent enough to understand the property you own, the relatives you wish to pass this property to, and the ramifications of signing the will. You cannot be experiencing a mental health disorder that impacts your ability to make decisions about your property, and you cannot be affected by coercion, undue influence, or fraud. You must sign the will in the presence of two witnesses (neither of which can be beneficiaries). These witnesses must also sign the document to confirm that you did, in fact, create the will or to acknowledge the validity of your signature on the document. You can change or revoke your will at any point during your lifetime.Dying without a will in place (known as dying intestate) means that your separate and community property will be divided and distributed according to California’s intestacy laws. Under these laws, your estate passes to your closest surviving relatives at the time of your death, beginning with your spouse and children, then your parents and siblings, and so forth through increasingly distant relatives. Without any surviving family members by blood or marriage, your estate will be transferred to the state. Alternatively, if your will is deemed invalid, your estate will also be subject to intestate succession.
  • Living Trust
    A living trust is a legal document that allows you to transfer ownership of assets and property from yourself to a trustee and select beneficiaries who will receive them after your death. You can name yourself as a trustee to retain control of the trust and the property it contains during your lifetime. However, you must also designate a successor trustee to manage the trust and distribute the trust property after you die. Because the property left through a trust does not have to go through probate, your beneficiaries can receive nearly immediate access to their inheritances. In the trust document, you can determine whether you want beneficiaries to receive their portion of the trust in a lump sum, in regular intervals, or upon certain life events, such as getting married.Updating the terms of the trust is crucial to ensure it contains all the property you want to leave behind without forcing beneficiaries to go through probate. Unfortunately, many people either create a trust and forget to formally transfer their property to the trust itself, or they acquire property after the trust was created and fail to account for it in the trust document. In these cases, the property that has not been transferred to the trust cannot be distributed according to the terms of the trust. If you don’t have a valid will in place when you die, your estate could suffer. Property that is not included in a living trust or protected through other methods (such as joint tenancy or community property with rights of survivorship) will be divided based on California’s intestate succession laws.