The California Estate Planning and Probate Process: Who is going to get all your properties after you are gone? A better question is how to make it as painless as possible for your successor to go through the process?

The best way to secure an easy path for your successor to undergo this process is to create a trust. There are many advantages to creating a trust. For instance, your family can save money on probate and taxes; moreover, you can put a more detailed plan in place to manage your property after you are gone.  However, one of the least known but greatest advantages of a trust is protecting your assets from creditors.  How?  Ask and you shall find out, maybe in a later blog. 

One of the biggest advantages to creating a trust is that the property that is owned by your trust avoids the probate process after you are gone. Initially you are going to be the main trustee when creating a trust. When you serve as a trustee while you are alive, the only fact that changes is that your property is not owned by you as an individual; however, it is owned by you as trustee for your own benefit. You are in control of 100 percent of your property.

Next step is to name a successor trustee in your trust document. That individual will automatically own your property after you are gone. It is a huge advantage for your family to avoid probate fees and taxes; moreover, it saves you time.

Another advantage is that you as a trustee can include instructions for your successor when he/she becomes the trustee of your property after you are gone. For example, you can instruct the successor trustee to distribute the property between your spouse and the children. This also saves your family the cost and the delay associated with probate process.

Lastly, you need to find out whether your estate is subject to federal estate taxes which can be pretty expensive. However, they can be reduced if carefully planned. If you are married and you and your spouse own property in excess of the unified credit amount that can be transferred free of federal estate taxes, you can use trusts that include special tax-savings provisions to save your family federal estate taxes on that excess.

KAASS LAW is authorized to practice law in California.   The above content is intended for California residents only.  This content provides only general information which may or may not reflect the most current legal developments. KAASS LAW expressly disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on any of the contents of this website.