Temple City Estate Planning and Probate: Compare Your Options

Start with the decision in front of you

If you are planning for yourself, the question is what documents should coordinate your wishes, financial authority and health-care decisions. If someone has died, the question is how the documents and ownership of that person's assets affect administration. Those are different starting points; a planning document is not a substitute for figuring out the process that applies after a death.

Before deciding what to change, gather the current versions of any will, trust, financial power of attorney and health-care document you have. If you are reviewing a deceased person's affairs, gather the relevant estate-planning documents and available ownership information instead. These are optional preparation steps, not a legal checklist. The comparison can help identify what is current, what appears inconsistent, and what questions need attention.

• Planning while alive: compare documents addressing wills, trusts, financial authority and health-care decisions.
• After a death: compare the estate documents with the ownership of the assets to understand whether trust administration or formal probate may apply.

Planning documents work as a set

A will, trust, financial authority document and health-care decision document address different parts of an estate plan. Consider them together rather than assuming that changing one document resolves every planning question. For each document, note its date, the role it is intended to serve, and whether it appears consistent with the others.

This service hub includes focused options such as wills, pour-over wills, revocable living trusts, financial powers of attorney, and advance health-care directives and living wills. Other available topics include business succession, pet trusts, charitable trusts and special needs trusts. Not every person or family needs every option. The useful next step is to identify the particular decision you are trying to address and compare the relevant documents before selecting a planning change.

• What decision or responsibility is each document meant to address?
• Do the documents appear to reflect the same current intentions?
• Which questions remain about a will, trust, financial authority or health-care decision?

After a death: compare trust administration and probate

Trust administration and formal probate depend on the estate documents and asset ownership. A trust's existence alone does not answer which process applies to every asset or resolve every administration question. Review the documents alongside available ownership records before drawing conclusions about the next step.

If formal probate is relevant, California Courts directs that it be opened in the county where the person who died lived. If the person lived outside California but owned property in California, the court's overview directs filing in the California county where that property is located. That general rule does not assign an individual case to a particular courthouse based only on a mailing address. For a Temple City matter, the decedent's residence and the location of relevant California property are the facts to sort out before assuming a county or courthouse.

Probate administration and trust administration are separate topics within this service. The documents and ownership information provide the starting point for determining which path to investigate; this overview cannot determine the path for a particular estate.

Prepare for a focused conversation

For a planning conversation, bring the documents you want compared and make a short list of the changes or uncertainties prompting your review. For an administration question, include the documents and information you have about asset ownership, and note where the person lived and where relevant California property is located. It is fine if some information is missing; identify what you do not yet know rather than guessing.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves clients virtually throughout California from its one in-person office in Novato. A useful first step is to identify whether your immediate concern is planning while alive, trust administration after a death, or whether formal probate may be involved, then focus the document comparison on that concern.