Rancho Palos Verdes Estate Planning Attorneys

An estate plan safeguards many aspects of your life, including your own health and well-being, your estate and its assets, and the financial support of your loved ones. You don’t want to leave the distribution of your estate or who makes decisions in your life up to chance. The right Rancho Palos Verdes estate planning attorneys can help you establish an estate plan tailored to your objectives and your loved one’s needs to protect your legacy.

What Makes Up an Estate Plan?

Your estate plan can be made up of several important documents specific to your situation. Many people prepare:

• A Will
• Beneficiary Designation
• Trusts
• Power of Attorney
• Advance Healthcare Directive

The documents you choose and the information in them should be tailored entirely to your goals. You may be providing a trust for a loved one who is disabled, you may have a small business, or you may want to specify that your assets are to be used for specific purposes. Strategic estate planning can manage each of these goals. Each estate plan is unique, but most include some of the following common documents.

A Last Will and Testament

Your last will and testament sets the foundation for what happens to your estate after your death. If you don’t have any other estate planning documents, the will outlines the beneficiaries for your assets when the estate goes through probate. If you do have a comprehensive estate plan, the will acts as a pour-over will, enabling all assets not in a trust yet to be placed in a trust.

A will also handles several other key elements, such as:

• Listing the assets and debts in your estate
• Outlining how you want your debts to be paid off, such as which assets to use
• Naming the person you want to act as your executor
• Naming preferred guardians for your minor children
• Providing instructions for your funeral and your cremation or burial preferences

Having a will does not prevent your estate from going through probate. Other documents in an estate plan are needed to do this. Some estates can avoid probate through a small estate affidavit, although this is less common in Rancho Palos Verdes.

However, having a will can make the probate process faster. Because your will names the assets and debts, it may take less time for your executor to gather your estate. It also clearly lists the distribution of your estate, which can minimize confusion or disputes between your loved ones.

Beneficiaries Designations

You can directly name beneficiaries on certain accounts, like a life insurance policy or a retirement account. Certain bank accounts can also be made payable on death. With beneficiary designations, the specific assets can be transferred without probate immediately and don’t have to be in a trust.

Trust

A trust is a legal entity that keeps assets from entering probate after your death. When you create a trust, you are the grantor. You can name yourself the trustee and another person the successor trustee, or you can immediately give someone else the powers of trustee. When you die, the trust is still in the ownership of the trustee or successor trustee and so does not enter the probate court’s jurisdiction.

The trustee is in charge of managing, administering, and distributing your estate to your beneficiaries, which can be done more quickly than in probate court. You can also outline the terms of a trust to determine how and when assets are used.

A trust offers extra protection for your assets during your life and also offers benefits after your death. There is a homeownership rate of 80.4% in Rancho Palos Verdes, and 84.5% of homes in the city were valued at or over $1 million. A home is a key asset in your estate, although it isn’t the only valuable asset to consider.

Power of Attorney

Power of attorney is a document in which you name an individual to be in charge of important decisions. You can give one or multiple people specific powers over your healthcare, financial, and legal decisions.

Powers of attorney in an estate plan are usually durable. A durable power of attorney means it is used if you are incapacitated or otherwise unable to make important decisions for yourself. By putting someone you trust in charge of these decisions, you can be certain that your affairs are handled properly if you cannot. It also prevents your loved ones from having to petition the court for these powers.

Advance Healthcare Directive

Your advance healthcare directive lists your wishes for medical care. It can determine pain management, spiritual beliefs, end-of-life care, and other treatments you do and do not consent to. It can also state where you want to get medical care.

This document is often combined with a healthcare power of attorney to create a living will. Your healthcare power of attorney can use the instructions in your directive to make decisions for your medical treatment. In one poll, only 31% of Americans had a living will.

Many Families Want to Avoid California Probate Court

A comprehensive estate plan that avoids probate has a lot of benefits for your loved ones. It improves privacy, minimizes stress, and helps the process resolve more quickly. Your loved ones get more certainty in how you want things handled and can receive the assets you left them more quickly and at less cost. You also have more control over the assets that beneficiaries get and how they use those assets.

Estate Planning Is Important for Blended Families Across California

Estate planning is critical for blended families to protect the inheritances of both your children and spouse. Without an estate plan, California law dictates asset distribution, often favoring a spouse over your kids. A will or trust guarantees fair division, while powers of attorney confirm a trusted person manages your affairs.

Hire an Estate Planning Attorney to Protect Your Legacy

When you hire an estate planning attorney at Wickers, Wickers & Admans LLP, our goal is to support your wishes. We have more than 25 years of combined experience and are proud to support families and individuals throughout South Bay, Los Angeles County, and Rancho Palos Verdes. Our attorneys believe in building lasting relationships with our clients to better serve their estate planning needs.

Estate plans can be legally and emotionally challenging, and our firm wants to help you understand your estate plan and how we can support your objectives. It provides protection for your loved ones and your estate, and we want to help you find the right strategies to create that protection.

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