Estate Planning and Probate Guidance for Moraga Residents

Local service, with a statewide virtual option

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, CA 94945, and provides virtual services throughout California, including Moraga. A remote consultation is a chance to explain what you want to plan for and identify which questions deserve attention first.

Choose the question that fits your situation

If you are planning while alive, start with the decisions you want documented. Estate planning may coordinate a will or trust with financial authority and health-care decisions. Consider whether your main concern is who can help manage financial matters, who should make health-care decisions, how you want assets handled after death, or a combination of these.

If someone has died, the initial question is different: are the relevant assets held in a trust, or might formal probate be needed? Trust administration and formal probate depend on the documents and on asset ownership. A family’s situation cannot be sorted out from the name of a document alone.

Planning options, grouped by purpose

The available planning topics cover several different decisions; they are not a checklist that every person needs to complete. For health-care choices, explore advance health-care directives and living wills or a health-care power of attorney. For financial authority, consider financial powers of attorney.

For instructions about property after death, the relevant topics include wills, pour-over wills and revocable living trusts. Other trust topics include irrevocable, charitable, pet and special-needs trusts, as well as asset-protection planning. Business succession and gift-tax planning address more particular goals.

If you are dealing with a death, the related topics include trust administration, probate administration, ancillary probate, and executor and trustee matters. Which, if any, applies depends on the documents and how assets are held. A consultation can help narrow the discussion instead of treating every topic as necessary.

Prepare for a useful remote consultation

Before meeting, write down your main goal and the decisions you want help organizing. Gather any wills, trusts, powers of attorney or health-care documents you already have, along with a simple list of significant assets and how each is titled, if known. For a matter following a death, note which documents and asset records are available and what steps have already been taken.

You do not need to resolve every question before speaking with the firm. Mark information you are unsure about rather than guessing. Those details can help focus the discussion on whether you are planning for the future, administering a trust, or trying to determine whether probate may be involved.