Create an Estate Plan and Gain Peace of Mind

You worked hard to build your success

Allow us to work hard to ensure your hard work does not go to waste

Whether it be a simple Will, a living Trust, an irrevocable Trust, or a combination of many instruments, our firm has put nearly 50 years of cumulative experience to work drafting sterling estate instruments. One benefit of many years of experience is seeing the documents our firm has prepared withstand the test of time again and again.

Please set up a time to come in and discuss your needs with our attorneys. We look forward to working with you.

  • Living Trusts

  • Financial and Medical Powers of Attorney

  • Wills

  • Guardianship nominations

  • Special Needs Trusts

  • Spendthrift Trusts

Do You Need A Lawyer to Make an Estate Plan?

You do NOT need a lawyer to create an estate plan. You can hand write the documents yourself and have them be perfectly valid, if you comply with certain legal prerequisites. Or you can type or print the documents, again, so long as you comply with certain other and different requirements. But do you know those requirements? Should you consult with a lawyer anyway? Yes. Estate planning attorneys have the education and experience necessary to ensure that your documents satisfy the requirements of the law.

Remember, if it is not done correctly, after you have passed away it is too late to fix it.

Do I Need an Estate Plan if I Don’t Have Many Assets?

Your estate comprises everything you own. That may be a car, your home, other real estate, checking and savings accounts and other investments, or may simply be your, furniture, clothes and personal possessions. Those are all considered assets. No matter how large or how modest, everyone has an estate made up of assets. The question then becomes, are your assets important enough to you to care who receives them after you are gone? If so, you should have at the very least, a will.

How much does it cost to Probate a Will or Estate without a Will?

California Statute determines attorney compensation based on the GROSS size of the estate. An attorney will be paid 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000 and 1% of the next $10million. By way of example, if you own a $1m home, the attorney fees for administering that Probate would be $23,000.00. There are no breaks for mortgages. It makes much more sense to avoid probate entirely, and create a Revocable Living Trust.

Revocable Trusts

Work with a skilled trust attorney to ensure your estate is protected from the cost and delay of probate when you pass.

A Revocable Trust can Avoid Probate

Administering an estate in Probate Court is the court-supervised process of transferring assets from a deceased individual to others after they have passed. All good Estate Planning Attorneys will advise to avoid probate at all costs because:

  • First, it is a slow process. There are timelines built into the law, and delays in the processes of many counties, that make it virtually impossible to wind up the affairs of an estate in less than a year.

  • Second, it is an expensive process. The filing fees, publication fees and appraisal fees can quickly add up to tens of thousands of dollars.

  • And, third, everything in a court proceeding is public record. The value of the estate and everything in it, who inherits or does not inherit, and what everyone received and its value are all right in the court file, which anyone has the right to go to the courthouse and view. All your financial affairs that you have kept private your whole life are available to whoever wants to see them.

A Revocable Trust is PRIVATE. The information is shared with only those who have a legal right to know.

A Revocable Trust COSTS LESS than the probate fees your loved ones may face.

The process of administering a Trust is FASTER than any conceivable probate proceeding

How A Revocable Trust Works

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by Steven R Pogue, Attorney at Law

Pogue Calvert, LLP