Estate Planning, Trust Administration, Probate and Business

Most people do not want to think about what will happen if they become incapacitated or pass away.  How will your family deal with your incapacity or death? Who will make decisions on your behalf? What will happen to your assets? All of these questions can be addressed by establishing a comprehensive estate plan.  By taking the guesswork out of these issues, you’ll find that you’re more at ease, knowing that your loved ones are taken care of and your assets will be distributed how you wish. 

The foundation of an estate plan consists of various documents meant to outline your wishes. These documents include: Wills, Revocable Living Trusts, Power of Attorney, Healthcare Directives, Irrevocable Trusts, Special Needs Trusts, Life Insurance Trusts and Charitable Trusts.

There are many reasons to do an estate plan but one of the main purposes of estate planning is to avoid probate. Without an estate plan, the disposition of your assets are subject to the costly and time consuming probate process in California. A properly created and maintained revocable living trust avoids probate. When you are gone, your successor trustee simply pays your last bills and then distributes your assets based on the terms of your revocable living trust.

Estate planning using trusts is a complex process. While most of us would prefer to put off creating a plan for our potential incapacity and our inevitable death, putting off having the right documents in place is never a good idea since we never know what lies in store for our future. Working with a trust attorney who understands California laws that apply to trusts, wills and probate can help ensure you have the plan that is best suited to your individual needs.

Attorney Ryan L. Arnett provides a whole range of estate planning services to residents of California. If you need help designing an estate plan tailored to your specific situation, you can count on him.

If you have been named a successor trustee and the person who set up the trust has passed away, you now have the legal responsibility to ensure the settlor’s wishes are carried out in accordance with the terms of the trust document. However, this process is not as simple as reading the trust and following its instruction. California has a very specific process that is required by law which includes notifying trust beneficiaries and heirs at law, ascertaining creditors of the decedent, documenting the change of title to the trust assets, filing appropriate tax returns, preparing an accounting of all transactions, and distributing trust assets as required by the trust.

As you can see, there are a number of steps where mistakes can be made. If you have been named as a successor trustee and need help administering a trust I’m here to help you with your needs.

Probate administration refers to the court-supervised procedure by which a deceased person's estate is managed to pay off creditors and taxes before being distributed to beneficiaries. In California, this can take anywhere between nine months and two years.

Most people have little or no experience dealing with probate. Proper administration of a probate estate requires court appearances, as well as knowledge of the laws and court procedures in place. There are certain local rules that apply which may be different for each county in California. This is why it is not a good idea to try to handle the probate on your own. An experienced California probate attorney knows how to efficiently move through the probate process. Executors often have questions pertaining to the process including the preparation of an inventory of assets in the estate, distributing assets to the heirs appropriately, and filing the final tax returns.

This complex process is one of the reasons why the Law Office of Ryan L. Arnett helps executors and administrators of estates with probate. I can help you throughout the California probate process and ensure that the process goes as smoothly as possible.