Estate Planning and Probate Guidance for Sausalito Families

Start with the decision that needs to be made

Estate planning is preparation during your lifetime. It can coordinate a will or trust with financial authority and health-care decisions. After a death, the next steps depend on the documents in place and how assets are owned; some matters proceed through trust administration and others through formal probate. A document by itself does not answer every question about an asset or beneficiary arrangement.

Before choosing a service, identify the situation you are addressing: planning for your own future, helping administer a trust after a death, or understanding whether a court-supervised probate process may apply. Those are related concerns, but they are not interchangeable.

Clarify what a document or beneficiary arrangement is meant to do

For each account or asset you want to address, note who owns it, whether another person or entity is named to receive it, and what you expect to happen if that person cannot act or receive it. These are preparation questions, not a checklist of legal requirements. They help surface mismatches between your intentions and the arrangements you have made.

Also identify who you would want involved in financial decisions and who you would want involved in health-care decisions. Estate planning can bring those topics together with wills and trusts, but each choice has its own purpose. A financial authority designation and a health-care decision are not substitutes for instructions about what should happen to property.

Choose the right path for the stage you are facing

If you are planning while alive, consider which parts of your situation need attention: a will, a trust, financial authority, health-care decisions, or more than one of these. The relevant documents and asset ownership matter, so the right starting point is not necessarily the same for every family.

If someone has died, first distinguish between administering a trust and addressing an estate through formal probate. Documents and asset ownership help determine which route is relevant. Do not assume that having a will, or having a trust, answers every question about how an asset will be handled.

Explore the planning and administration topics

The related services are organized by the question they address, so you can focus on what is relevant rather than treating every option as necessary.

• Planning documents and decision-making: Wills; Pour-Over Wills; Revocable Living Trusts; Financial Power of Attorney; Advance Healthcare Directives and Living Wills; Healthcare Power of Attorney.
• Trust choices and administration: Trust Administration; Executor and Trustee Services; Asset Protection Trusts; Irrevocable Trusts; Charitable Trusts; Pet Trusts; Special Needs Trusts.
• Other estate and transfer concerns: Probate Administration; Ancillary Probate; Business Succession Planning; Gift Tax Planning.

Prepare for a focused conversation

Gather the documents you already have, a current list of assets and how each is titled, any beneficiary designations you can locate, and the names of people you are considering for decision-making or administration roles. Write down what you want to happen and what is unclear. This preparation can help identify which questions concern lifetime planning and which concern administration after a death.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves Sausalito clients virtually as part of its statewide California service area, with its in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, CA 94945. A practical next step is to identify the decision you need help with and bring the related documents and questions to a consultation.