Estate Planning and Probate Guidance for Paradise, California

First identify the decision in front of you

Planning while you are alive is different from carrying out instructions after a death. If you are planning, the useful question is how your will, trust, financial authority and health-care decisions fit together. If someone has died, the immediate question is whether the documents and asset ownership point toward trust administration, formal probate, or a need to examine both possibilities.

There is no single document that answers every question. A will, trust and authority document each plays a different part in an estate plan, and administration depends on more than the name of a document.

Compare the documents before deciding what to change

Gather the current will and any trust, along with financial-authority and health-care documents. Compare the names of the people given roles, the instructions in each document, and whether the documents appear to address the same circumstances. Note questions or apparent inconsistencies rather than assuming that replacing one document will resolve the whole plan.

For an existing plan, also collect information about how assets are owned. That matters because trust administration and formal probate depend on both the documents and asset ownership. A plan should be considered as a coordinated set of instructions, not as a checklist where every person needs every available document.

• If you are planning, mark which documents you have and which decisions you still need to make.
• If a death has occurred, gather the relevant estate documents and information showing asset ownership before trying to determine the administration path.

Separate living plans from administration after death

A living plan can coordinate instructions for a will or trust with financial authority and health-care decisions. Which documents are appropriate depends on the decisions you want addressed; the presence of one document does not, by itself, establish that the rest of the plan is complete.

After a death, distinguish trust administration from formal probate by reviewing the documents and how assets are held. Do not assume that a trust automatically settles every asset outside probate, or that probate is necessarily required for every estate. The right next step is to identify the assets and governing documents, then assess which process applies.

Choose focused help rather than treating every service as necessary

The available planning and administration topics range from wills, pour-over wills and revocable living trusts to health-care directives, health-care powers of attorney and financial powers of attorney. Other focused topics include trust administration, probate administration and executor or trustee services.

Some families may instead need to explore a particular issue, such as business succession, charitable or pet trusts, special-needs or asset-protection trusts, irrevocable trusts, gift-tax planning, or ancillary probate. These are distinct topics, not a package that every person should adopt. Begin with the decision you are trying to make and the documents and assets connected to it.

Prepare for a useful planning conversation

Before contacting the firm, make a simple inventory of existing documents, known asset ownership and the questions you want answered. If you are planning, note the decisions that feel unresolved; if you are responding to a death, identify which documents and asset information are available. These steps can help focus the discussion without presuming which legal process applies.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office in Novato and provides virtual services throughout California, including for people in Paradise.