Revocable Living Trusts Attorney in Santa Maria

The practical effect of a living trust depends on its terms, the assets placed in it, and California law. We evaluate your priorities before helping determine what type of trust may be appropriate.

Common planning considerations include:

• Control during life: You may serve as the initial trustee and continue managing property held in the trust.
• Incapacity planning: A successor trustee, meaning the person chosen to act when the original trustee can’t serve, may manage trust property according to the document’s terms.
• Probate avoidance: Assets properly transferred into the trust may pass to beneficiaries without probate, the court-supervised process for administering an estate.
• Privacy: Property passing through a trust may avoid some public probate proceedings, although other estate matters may still involve the court.

A living trust isn’t a substitute for every estate-planning decision. A broader plan may also address health care choices, financial authority, beneficiary designations, and property that remains outside the trust.

Creating & Funding a Living Trust

Trust planning doesn’t end when the documents are signed. The process also requires identifying the property, people, and instructions the plan is intended to address.

Important trust-creation decisions include:

• Identifying assets: Review real estate, financial accounts, business interests, and other property that may affect the plan.
• Selecting fiduciaries: Choose the initial trustee and a successor trustee who may act if the original trustee becomes unable to serve or dies.
• Naming beneficiaries: Specify who may receive trust property and the conditions governing distributions.
• Funding the trust: Complete any ownership or beneficiary-designation changes needed to bring covered assets within the plan. The proper action varies by asset and applicable law.

A pour-over will may direct certain property remaining outside the trust into it after death. It doesn’t replace proper funding, and property passing through the will may still require probate. The documents should also be reviewed after significant changes in family circumstances, property ownership, fiduciary choices, or planning goals.

Our revocable living trusts lawyer in Santa Maria assists clients with establishing trusts and can serve as a trust administrator, carrying out responsibilities under the trust’s terms.