Benefits of a Revocable Trust in California
Revocable trusts present an excellent strategy for handling the assets in your estate plan. The benefits of a revocable trust are numerous and in California, the most common way to distribute assets instead of using a will. In California, probate can be a long, expensive, and public process. A revocable trust is an estate planning […]
Naming Your Trustee
Selecting a trustee to handle your trust can is an important choice. While it may be tempting to name your best friend or family member to the task, it’s important to understand what the trustee’s job will include before naming your trustee. Person of Good Character Your Trustee should be a person of good character. […]
What is a Successor Trustee
A successor trustee refers to a person, or persons, tasked with managing and administering the terms of a trust when the trust’s creator called the grantor, can no longer administer the trust on their own. While that can refer to situations where the grantor has passed on, it can also apply to situations when the […]
Responsibilities of a Personal Representative
A personal representative, or an executor, refers to an appointed individual charged with the responsibility of managing the person’s estate. This represents a huge responsibility for the executor, even for seemingly modest estates. As the personal representative, they will be required to take care of the details of finalizing the estate after you have died. […]
Choosing an Executor for your Estate
When it comes to choosing an executor for your estate plan, it may be simple to pick someone from amongst your family members and friends for the task. Broadly speaking, any of those individuals could be capable of doing the job. But because the task of executing an estate plan can present a variety of […]
Second Marriages and Estate Planning
Second marriages are very common and they are one of the most important reasons to have your estate plan updated or in some cases, created. When it comes to second marriages and estate planning there are considerations you did not have with your first marriage. You want your estate plan to reflect what is important […]
Reasons to Update My Estate Plan
For many people, the idea of creating an estate plan may be a “one and done” situation: they create the plan, then they put it aside and think no more about the subject. But there are reasons to update an estate plan you may want to consider. Life brings changes, and because those changes can […]
Estate Planning for Unmarried Couples
Estate planning tends to be something most people associate with married couples. But unmarried committed couples are very common in today’s society. There may be reasons a couple chooses not to marry but still want to insure their beloved is provided for. Estate planning for unmarried couples is just as important therefore as for married […]
Estate Planning After Divorce
Life changes and so should estate plans. A divorce creates a substantial life change for both individuals. After the final judgment of divorce has been issued, it’s also important to consider new estate planning after divorce. Normally couples have designated their spouse as a beneficiary but after the divorce, this usually no longer makes sense. […]
What is the Power of Attorney?
Simply put, the power of attorney is a document you would create which grants an individual you designate the power to act with authority on your behalf. It is a common part of a well-designed estate plan. Also referred to as an “agent,” that individual that you have designated with the power of attorney has […]
