One of the questions that I get is whether you need an attorney to set up a trust, and the answer is yes. I recommend that you hire an attorney to help you set up a Revocable Living Trust.

The reason for this is a trust is a complex document. And as a complex document, there are a lot of things that go into it and a lot of things to consider. If you’re not fully versed within the world of the probate law and within the tax code, you would want to rely on a trained and trusted professional to help you set up your estate plan with a Revocable Living Trust as the foundation.

The answer to this question is no. An inheritance is not community property or marital property in California.

California is a community property state, which means that all property received during the marriage is community property unless it is received by gift or inheritance. And so if you inherit money from a family member and you inherit that money in your name alone, that money is your separate property.

If you live in California and prepare a will or a trust and then move out of state, you may need to update your estate plan. Now, this doesn’t mean that you would have to recreate your will or your trust. Most states, like California, have rules that say that a will from another state can be probated in that state. A trust written anywhere in the United States is valid in all 50 states.

When it comes to your power of attorney and your advanced health care directive, however, that is another story. Those documents, by and large, are state specific, which means that each state has its own individual rules about what is required for a power of attorney or a healthcare directive. So, if you move to another state, your will and your trust will still work the way that you want them to work, but you may need to update your power of attorney or your advanced healthcare directive.

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.

Well, there are several categories of assets that are not included in probate in California. The first category are assets that are owned by a revocable trust. If someone created a revocable trust during his or her lifetime and transferred assets to that trust, then those assets that are owned by the trust are not part of the probate case.

The other class of assets that are not part of a probate case are assets where there is a designated beneficiary. So, an example of these will include life insurance and most retirement accounts.

A third category of assets that are not included in a probate case are assets that are held jointly, such as a joint checking or savings account. The law says that when one person dies on a joint financial account, the other person is the sole owner by operation of law.

And so those types of assets, the jointly owned assets, most retirement accounts or beneficiary designated assets, and any assets that are held by a revocable trust are, are not part of the probate estate.

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.

California defines a small estate as someone who passes away with less than $184,500 in his or her name on the date of death. Now, that number does not include real estate. And so, if someone owns real estate in California, it’s unlikely that they can avoid probate if they haven’t done prior planning.

If someone does not own real estate and they have an estate that has a value of less than $184,500 – then they can avoid probate by signing what’s called a small estate affidavit.

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.