Estate Planning and Probate Options for Santa Ana Families

Start with the situation you need to address

If you are planning for yourself, consider how your will, trust, financial authority and health-care decisions should work together. These documents address different planning concerns, so the useful question is not simply whether to get a trust or a will. It is which decisions and arrangements you want addressed and how the documents should coordinate.

If someone has died, first identify the documents and the ownership of the relevant assets. Those facts help distinguish trust administration from formal probate. A family may need to address one route or both; the labels alone do not establish which applies.

Planning while you are alive

Planning can combine a will or trust with documents addressing financial authority and health-care decisions. Not every person needs every planning service listed below. The starting point is to identify the decisions you want covered, the assets involved and whether existing documents already address them.

For example, someone reviewing an existing plan might first ask whether it addresses both financial and health-care decisions, then consider whether a will, trust or both are part of the intended arrangement. This is a planning prompt, not a conclusion about which document is appropriate for a particular person.

• Health-care planning: Advance Healthcare Directives and Living Wills; Healthcare Power of Attorney.
• Financial authority: Financial Power of Attorney.
• Will and trust planning: Wills; Revocable Living Trusts; Pour-Over Wills.
• Other focused topics: Business Succession Planning; Asset Protection Trusts; Charitable Trusts; Gift Tax Planning; Irrevocable Trusts; Pet Trusts; Special Needs Trusts.

After a death: trust administration or probate

Trust administration and formal probate are not interchangeable labels for settling an estate. The documents and asset ownership matter to determining which process applies. A trust may call for administration, while some circumstances may involve formal probate; a trust does not, by itself, establish that probate is unnecessary.

For a matter involving trust administration, explore Trust Administration. For a matter involving court-supervised probate, explore Probate Administration. Ancillary Probate is a separate focused topic. Executor and Trustee Services concerns the roles associated with administration; whether a particular person should serve depends on the circumstances and documents.

Prepare for a useful first conversation

Gather any existing wills, trust documents and records that help show how relevant assets are owned. Make a short list of the decisions you want addressed if you are planning, or the documents and assets you have identified if you are handling matters after a death. Note what remains uncertain rather than assuming that a document title answers the question.

A practical next step is to discuss your goal and the documents and ownership information available, then identify whether the issue is planning, trust administration, probate or a combination. This helps keep the discussion focused without assuming that every family needs every service.