These California trust and estate guides explain the topics that come up most in estate planning, in plain English. Use them to understand living trusts, probate, taxes, and asset protection before you meet with an attorney. Each guide is written for families, not lawyers. When you are ready to talk about your own plan, the consultation is free.
Estate Planning
- Revocable Living Trust. The most common tool for avoiding probate while keeping full control of your assets during your life.
- Living Trust vs Will in California. How the two documents differ, and why most California families use a living trust to avoid probate.
- Who Needs a Living Trust?. The pros and cons of a living trust, and the situations where one is worth setting up.
- When Should You Create an Estate Plan?. The life events, from a first home to a new child, that signal it is time to plan.
- What Is an Estate Plan?. A short video overview of what an estate plan includes and what it does for your family.
- A/B Trust. How married couples can use a two-part trust to plan for taxes and protect the surviving spouse.
- Separate Property Trusts. When spouses keep separate property, and how a separate trust can protect it.
- Qualified Domestic Trust. A trust that preserves the marital estate tax deferral when a surviving spouse is not a U.S. citizen.
- Life Insurance Trust. How an irrevocable life insurance trust can keep policy proceeds out of your taxable estate.
- How a Mortgage Works With a Living Trust. Transferring a mortgaged home into your trust, and why the due-on-sale rule usually does not apply.
- How Taxes Work in a Living Trust. Why a revocable living trust generally does not change your income taxes while you are alive.
- Moving Property In and Out of a Trust. The steps to fund your trust and to take property back out when you need to.
- Property Title. Why how you hold title matters, and how it interacts with your trust and your estate plan.
- Deeds Upon Death. How a transfer-on-death deed passes real estate to a beneficiary without probate.
- What Is Staged Distribution?. Releasing an inheritance in stages, by age or milestone, rather than all at once.
- Trustees vs. Financial Agents. The difference between a trustee and an agent under a power of attorney, and who does what.
- Choosing a Guardian for Minor Children. How to name the person who would raise your children, and what to weigh in the choice.
- Estate Planning With Minor Children. The guardianship, trust, and beneficiary decisions that protect young children.
- Estate Planning for Single Parents. The planning steps that matter most when you are raising children on your own.
- Estate Planning for Same-Sex Families. Planning considerations that protect same-sex spouses, partners, and their children.
- What Would Your Child Want?. Six factors from a child’s perspective to keep in mind as you plan for their future.
Trust Administration
- Who Can Change My Trust After I Die?. When a trust becomes irrevocable, and the limited situations where its terms can still change.
Estate Tax and Asset Protection
- Asset Protection. Strategies that shield your assets from future creditors and lawsuits, set up the right way.
- Tax Planning. How to reduce estate and gift tax exposure through lifetime planning.
- Charitable Planning. Using charitable trusts and gifts to support causes you care about and lower taxes.
- Qualified Personal Residence Trust. A trust that can move your home out of your taxable estate at a reduced gift value.
- IRA Trust. How a trust named as your IRA beneficiary can protect and control retirement assets for your heirs.
Probate
Learn how California probate works, when it applies, and how a well-built estate plan can help your family avoid it. See our California probate overview.
Talk to a Lawyer
Guides are a starting point, not legal advice for your specific situation. When you are ready to talk it through, call 877-780-4727. The consultation is free.
