What is a Revocable Living Trust ?
A trust is set up to organize and collect your assets with instructions on how to distribute those assets. Living trusts offer several advantages over wills. The most cited benefits are the avoidance of Probate and the ability to keep your distribution from becoming a public record upon your death.
Do I need a trust ?
You may be a good candidate for a trust if you have at least $184,500 in total assets (including real estate, life insurance, bank and investment accounts, etc.). In California, if someone dies with over $184,500 in assets and doesn't have a Revocable Living Trust, chances are that their estate will have to go through Probate- a court process that can be costly, time-consuming, and stressful for the administrator of the estate. Having a Revocable Living Trust protects the people you love most, and gives you peace of mind.
What is included in your trust package?
We do your Revocable Living Trust, Power of Attorney, Advance Healthcare Directive, Nomination of Guardian (if you have minor children), Will, and Asset Transfer Documents.
What is the process for having a trust created?
1. You schedule a free, no obligation phone consultation with Jay or Pete, and they talk you through the process and give you a price estimate. We generally charge a flat-rate fee for your trust package, and there are never any hidden costs.
2. You do some homework, thinking about who you would like to list as beneficiaries, how you want your estate to be handled, etc.
3. You come in for a two-hour estate planning meeting with one of our attorneys. They go through the wishes that you wrote out in Step 2, and answer any questions you might have. Please note that this meeting is held virtually, if possible. We offer planning meetings as early as 6:00am and as late as 5:30-7:30pm.
4. We send you a draft of your documents, if you wish. You can go over them and let us know about any updates or changes you'd like to make.
5. We walk you through your documents in a two-hour walkthrough meeting, typically held virtually. Our attorney will review your documents with you in detail and confirm that your documents reflect your wishes. Part of our process is educating our clients on their plan and answering your questions so that you feel confident about your plan.
6. You come to our office in Pleasanton for your in-person signing meeting with our office staff.
I already have a trust, but it's from a long time ago. Can you update it?
Not only can we update it, we highly suggest getting your older trust updated. This is because there have been some recent changes to tax laws, which mean that your older trust is probably outdated, which can end up costing your spouse or beneficiaries a lot of headache. We offer Trust Restatements, which means we essentially re-do your older trust documents from square-one, but we keep the name of your trust the same, so you don't have to change the beneficiary name on your assets (they probably have your existing trust name on them).
