Yes, probate is needed even if there is a will. There are two types of probate in California. The first is probate when there’s a will. The second type is probate when there is no will. And that’s called an intestacy proceeding, somebody dies intestate or without a will.

Having a will does not avoid probate. There are only three ways to avoid probate in California. The first is to have a revocable trust. The second is to be married and have a surviving spouse do what’s called a spousal set aside. And the third way is to have a small estate which is having less than $188,000 in assets on the date of your death.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

We see people updating their wills or their trusts anytime there’s a major life change. The types of life changes that could warrant updating your will or your trust include death in the family, a birth, marriage, divorce, bankruptcy or a change in the law.

For most people, we find that meeting every three years with an attorney and talking about what has changed is efficient. For very young families who are going through a lot of dynamic changes, we might reach out to them once every year. And also with the elderly or an elderly person who might be transitioning into an assisted living facility or a nursing home, we might want to meet with that person once a year.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

When you set up a trust, you will designate who you want to be the successor trustee. This is the trustee who takes over management of the trust estate when you pass away. Now, best practice is to have multiple layers or multiple lists of trustees to take over. And so you’ll want person A to be first, person B to be second and so on.

Now in the event that you have a trust that does not have a trustee listed, so for example, you list person A and person A passes away and you don’t have a trustee next in line, the beneficiaries can petition the court to appoint a trustee. But, we want to avoid going to court to keep costs down. So you should have a first position, second position and third position.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

Probate is required regard regardless of whether there is a will or not. So if someone has a will and they own more than $188,000 their estate will still have to go through probate.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

The answer to this question is it depends. It depends on how assets were held during the marriage by the spouses and it also depends on what types of assets the deceased spouse had in his or her name.

Now there are a number of ways to deal with assets that were owned by a deceased spouse. One way is that if the value of those assets is lower than the threshold for a small estate, then the surviving spouse may use a small estate affidavit to transfer property.

The surviving spouse also might be able to use what’s called a spousal set aside, which is similar to a quickie or a short form of probate.

The third way that a surviving spouse can avoid probate is to have already established a revocable trust and have the trust owning the assets of the married couple.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.