Bruce knows that estate planning can be both emotional and difficult.
Estate planning serves two main purposes. The first is to ensure that your wishes and finances are properly handled if you become incapacitated due to illness or injury. The second is to ensure that your assets are properly administered after your death. Creating an estate plan that effectively manages the end of your life can lift the burden on you and your loved ones.
You have worked hard to build your estate and it is important to protect those assets by establishing a trust to manage your estate. Some trusts are set up by the grantor, the person who established the trust, to continue to protect their own interests or that of a survivor until they die. One objective is to avoid probate court where your estate may be distributed in a manner that might not follow your intentions. As long as you have set up a trust document, the estate is protected and can be used and passed along to beneficiaries in accordance with your desires.
Bruce will fully explain the procedures and requirements of a trust in California. Normally, when the estate owner dies or is incapacitated it will have court supervision to ensure that the estate is handled properly and with fairness to heirs. A living trust is a legal arrangement that lets you, or your survivors, privately administer the estate and avoid probate, as well as achieve other estate planning objectives while maintaining complete control of your property. Such trusts are typically revocable, which allows for changes or revocation as long as you are living.