Estate planning guide
Hiring an Estate Planning Lawyer
What the work includes, from the first conversation to a signed and funded plan, and when it makes sense to hire one.
Why it matters
More than filling in forms
An estate plan is a set of legal documents, but the documents are the last step, not the first. Most of the work an estate planning attorney does happens before anything is drafted: learning how your family is put together, what you own and how it is titled, and what could go wrong if you became ill or died without a plan.
This guide walks through what that work includes, what you should have in hand at the end, and the situations where an attorney’s involvement matters most.
Everything here assumes California law. Estate planning rules differ from state to state, so a plan written for another state, or downloaded from a national website, may not fit a California family. If you moved here from somewhere else, your existing documents are worth reviewing with that in mind.
Understanding your family and your property
Every plan starts with questions. Who depends on you? Are there children from an earlier relationship, a child with special needs, or a relative you would not want managing money? Do you own a home, rental property, a business, or retirement accounts, and how is each one titled? The answers decide which documents you need and how they should be written. Two families with the same assets can need very different plans.
Recommending the right documents
Next comes a recommendation. For many Southern California homeowners, that means a revocable living trust, because probate for an estate that includes a house can be slow, public, and costly. For others, a will may be enough. An attorney should explain the tradeoffs in plain terms and tell you why one approach fits your situation better than another. Our guide to choosing a trust or a will covers the basics.
Drafting documents that work together
A complete plan usually includes a living trust, a pour-over will, a durable power of attorney for finances, and an advance health care directive. Each document has a different job, and they have to agree with one another: who serves as trustee, who serves as agent, who inherits, and when. Drafting them together avoids the gaps and contradictions that can send a family to court. See what a complete estate plan includes.
Advice that a form cannot give
An online form can produce a document, but it cannot tell you whether that document fits your situation. An attorney can raise issues you may not know to ask about: how a beneficiary designation on a retirement account interacts with your trust, whether joint ownership of your home works against your plan, or how to leave money to a young adult who is not ready to manage it. Your conversations with an attorney are also confidential.
Signing it correctly
California sets formal signing requirements for wills, powers of attorney, and health care directives, such as witnesses or a notary. A document signed the wrong way may fail when your family needs it. We explain how each document must be signed and make sure your signing meets those requirements.
Funding the trust
A living trust controls only the property it holds. After signing, your home and other assets need to be moved into it. Our office prepares the deed that transfers your California home to the trust and gives you written instructions for your bank and brokerage accounts and your beneficiary designations. Our trust funding checklist explains each step.
Keeping the plan current
Families change. A marriage, divorce, birth, death, move, or major change in assets can leave parts of a plan out of date. An attorney can tell you whether a change calls for an amendment, a new document, or nothing at all.
When an attorney matters most
Any adult can benefit from a plan, but the details matter more when you own a home, have minor children, have children from more than one relationship, own a business or rental property, have a family member with special needs, or want to control when and how your heirs receive money. Those are the situations a one-size-fits-all form is least likely to account for.
Talk with us
Montanez Yu prepares complete estate plans for individuals and families throughout California, including revocable living trusts, wills, powers of attorney, and advance health care directives. Estate planning consultations are free, and every plan is a flat fee, quoted in writing before we begin. Call (951) 444-7407 or request a free consultation.
This guide is general information about California law, not legal advice for your situation. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.